Bogus structures on Coastal Road land raise concerns | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: The 100-odd tenements on reclaimed land abutting a retaining wall of the Coastal Road at Worli might seem like typical unauthorised structures in Mumbai – except they could be part of a calculated land-grab by builders to take control of prime real estate along the city’s western seafront.

The structures, erected recently at Markandeshwar Nagar, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Nagar and Madraswadi in Worli, are now being demolished by the civic authorities on a complaint from an alert citizen. But activists suspect these slum-dwellers were brought here by developers, to get them declared as Project Affected Persons (PAPs), as phase one of the Coastal Road winds down to completion. Rehabilitating these purported PAPs would, in turn, give developers access to prime land parcels on newly reclaimed land under the Coastal Road project.

The ₹14,000-crore, eight-lane sea bridge, which currently extends from Marine Lines to Bandra West, has seen the creation of new land along Mumbai’s western coast – 70 hectares reclaimed from the sea. While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) developing the Coastal Road has reserved the land as open space, some are already staking claim to this coveted real estate, among the costliest in the world.

On Tuesday, ports and fisheries minister Nitesh Rane wrote to the municipal commissioner, demanding that the reclaimed land be transferred to his department so that it could be monetised. Rane, who made this demand despite Supreme Court guidelines that bar the commercialisation of reclaimed land, backed down after an outcry from opposition leaders and citizens.

With so much at stake, the land has become vulnerable to attempts from various quarters to seize portions of it. Santosh Daundkar, a citizen-activist, reported the 100-odd encroachments at Worli to the city collector and the BMC’s coastal road department.

“These structures came up after the retaining wall was built by the coastal road department,” Daundkar stated in his letter to the collector. He told HT, “The modus operandi of developers is to get these slum-dwellers declared as PAPs of the coastal road project, in the survey list, and later through forged documents, show them as eligible for slum rehabilitation. This would give builders access to the reclaimed land, to construct various real-estate projects.”

Acting on Daundkar’s complaint, the additional collector (city) instructed the BMC to take immediate action regarding the encroachments in Worli. The letter, dated March 24, stressed the urgency of addressing the situation and called for a thorough inspection of the unauthorised constructions.

The BMC’s coastal road department, in turn, wrote to the civic G-South ward. In its letter dated March 27, the department noted, “It (the encroachments) is into the construction area where the laying of sewer pipe line is in progress behind the retaining wall at Madraswadi, Markandeshwar Nagar. The said structures are being constructed without any permission. Thus illegal encroachment is not only a hindrance to their work but also poses threat to safety and security of our workers. The illegal encroachment is hampering the work, i.e. laying of sewer pipeline, behind the retaining wall near Madraswadi, which will significantly lead to delay in the said work.”

The G-South ward has proceeded to demolish the unauthorised structures. “The demolition is ongoing and we have razed 17 unauthorised structures adjoining the Coastal Road wall so far. Structures which are locked will be razed after seeking police protection,” said a senior official with G-South ward.

Daundkar is not the only citizen-activist keeping an eye on developments along the Coastal Road, one of Mumbai’s flagship infrastructure projects. Former IPS officer and advocate YP Singh, who lives in Worli, said, “Serious encroachments are cropping up along the highly restrictive intertidal land in the CRZ-1AB category. With the entire Coastal Road infrastructure in place, including a large number of security guards, how could the land be illegally encroached under the open gaze of the authorities?”

To back his claim, Singh said all one needs to do is compare satellite imagery from 2012 with current images of the reclaimed land in question. “It is apparent that a large number of new slum structures has appeared.”

Just like Daundkar, Singh believes Mumbai’s powerful builder lobby is making a stab at grabbing portions of the reclaimed coastal land. “They could be seeking the benefit arising out of the housing department’s Government Resolution (GR) of August, 2024, where huge FSI is being given for rehabilitation of Project Affected Persons (PAPs),” Singh said. “When a survey is done, these encroachments would get classified as PAPs and thereupon huge FSI will be obtained by the builders. It is simply an FSI game to construct mammoth skyscrapers facing the sea,” Singh added.