Maharashtra to take up pending mill land cases

The state government will soon decide the fate of the pending mill land development applications submitted to it.

Applications from nine private mills and 18 National Textile Corporation (NTC) mills are pending before the state government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

A senior state government official said, "The Supreme Court has lifted the stay on development of mill lands where intimation of denials (IODs) were already issued, sanction under section 58 of the Development Control Regulation (DCR) were given and commencement certificates (CCs) were granted. In addition, the apex court has directed that competent authorities may process applications seeking fresh permission too."

The Supreme Court in its May 11 order has said, "New applications for grant of approval of layouts, issue of IODs or commencement certificates may be processed, but no construction shall begin till the final order is issued by the Mumbai High Court."

The court has also directed that while processing the mill owners' applications, "the schemes, rules, regulations and by-laws framed under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, 1996, should be strictly followed."

The official said, "There is a general misconception regarding open spaces becoming available. The two regulations "" Development Control Regulation (DCR) and Development Plan (DP) of Mumbai "" will regulate this issue. The DCR stipulations come into force once development plans are underway and prescribe the quantum of land to be reserved for providing open spaces, green cover (around 25 per cent). Under the Mumbai Development Plan, plots are reserved in different regions for providing gardens, open spaces and other social infrastructure."

VK Tripathy, managing director, NTC (south Maharashtra subsidiary), said, "NTC has identified 180 acre of its mill land in Mumbai city for development. Of this, 45 acre will be handed over to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada). In addition, five acre will be handed over for various reservations under the DP plan, which is revised every 10-15 years."

The government official added that the chief minister would soon convene a meeting of the urban development department to finalise the processing of these pending applications under the guidelines issued by the Mumbai High Court on April 1, 2005.