Mumbai developers oppose MoEF's high rise guidelines

MUMBAI: The future of new high-rises in the country will now hinge on how wide the access road is and how far the fire station is.
Seeking a control on the ever-expanding urban sprawl, the union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) have recently framed new guidelines for clearance of building projects by the ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC).
Mumbai developers and experts say it is a joke that the environment ministry has framed guidelines due to representation done by Kerala. Though these guidelines for environment clearance are applicable on those projects exceeding 20,000 sq mts or 2 lakh sq ft, it would have some bearing on redevelopment of cessed buildings in small plots admeasuring more than one acre.
In Mumbai, Development Control rules allows small plots to accommodate 10-storey buildings with open space relaxation.
"The reason being these plots have already consumed higher Floor Space Index (FSI) of upto 7. When these over an acre plots are redeveloped with an additional FSI of 2.5 and you load staircase and fungible FSI, the development touches almost 18 lakh sq ft and thus, would require nod of the EAC. It would thus be Interesting to note the contradiction between the new MoEF guidelines and development control rules in Mumbai,’’ said Vyomesh Rao of YMS Consultants.`` The civic body allows a project of any size and height provided it has a road width of minimum 9 mts and access width of 12 mtrs.
In redevelopment projects, the government has permitted buildings having a height of more than 24 mts on a plot less than 600 mts with 1.5 mts open space,’’ Rao added. Paras Gundecha, president of Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry, who will be raising the issue with the ministry, said that the guideline makes a mockery of plans to make anotherShanghai of Mumbai and is illogical as one would henceforth not able to construct buildings more than seven floors. According to experts, in Mumbai, there are only seven roads which aremore than 30 mts wide. They are; in the western suburbs, the link road and western express highway which is 36.60 MW or 120 Feet. In the eastern suburbs, the LBS Marg and the eastern express highway is 30.40 mts. Apart from these, there are three roads connecting the east and western suburbs which are 45 mts wide. They are Santacruz Chembur link road, Jogeshwari Vikhroli link road and the Goregaon Mulund link road.
"So, it means one can develop 60 floor buildings only along these roads,’’ said a consultant. ``Take S V Road, which is the main arterial road in the suburbs. This road is less than 30 mts wide at27.4 mts, in which case buildings on S V Road cannot exceed 14 to 18 Floors. In a city starved with space, how can one build small buildings,’’ he added.