Mumbai: FSI incentives for giving up plots for public use

Facing a paucity of funds to acquire and develop all the reserved public open spaces, the Mumbai municipality relies heavily on accommodation reservation (AR) – where affected land owners or societies develop these reservations and are compensated in terms of floor space index – when these are handed over to the civic body.

But the old compensation policy had not received the desired response, since it was found to not compensate the land holders adequately despite surrendering a part of their own plot for public use. In fact in a large number of cases, it was found that they would actually end up losing some of their plot’s development potential if they agreed to come under the policy.

On Tuesday, the Chief Minister-led Urban Development (UD) department made revisions to Mumbai’s latest development control regulations, incentivising such developments. It has now made it clear that the compensation in lieu of such developments will be over and above the permissible floor space index of the remainder of the plot. The UD department has also made a U-turn regarding its previously stated policy regarding compensation to land holders in cases where portions of the land is acquired for road widening. While the CM-led department had earlier positioned that the benefit will be administered within the permissible FSI limit, it has now said that it will be available over and above this limit. The second proposal is expected to benefit hundreds of redevelopments in both the island city and the suburbs of Mumbai.

In November 2016, the state government had come up with a new transferable development rights (TDR) policy, where it had hiked the FSI compensation to be accorded in cases where lands were to be acquired for developing public reservations and for road widening purposes, among others.

When the Mumbai municipality began implementing the new policy, it had initially cleared proposals where the TDR benefit in road widening cases was sanctioned over and above the permissible FSI. But the civic body put a stop to this practice in January 2018 after the UD department had pulled it up for “incorrect” interpretation of the new policy. The department’s town planners claimed that the TDR benefit was to be administered within the cap. In other words, for building proposals submitted post January 2018, compensation for surrender of road setback portions was administered within the FSI limits.

But Tuesday, the UD department, acceding to demands being raised by the construction industry, altered its stance. Meanwhile, questions over the fate of proposals cleared in the period between January, 2018 and now are being raised. When contacted, civic commissioner Ajoy Mehta hinted that the municipality will come up with a fresh transition policy for such cases. Senior town planners, meanwhile, claimed that “all such cases had the option of converting in toto and adopting the city’s new regulations for availing the revised benefit”.

Plan for special dispensation for buildings near airport on hold
The ruling BJP government’s big plan for a “special dispensation” in Mumbai’s new DCR for the construction of buildings facing height restrictions owing to their proximity to the airport or defence installations has been pushed on the back burner.

Just as the BJP’s city leadership has been lobbying for it, the government’s town planners and the bureaucracy was opposed to it, stating this would burden the city’s infrastructure.

Eventually, the CM has gone with the latter. While the proposal was earlier kept in abeyance, the government made it clear on Tuesday that no special dispensation will be a part of the new regulation.