Mumbai corporators get time to study DP, delay finalisation by 2 months

The city’s new development plan (DP) — which was supposed to be finalised on March 20 — has now been delayed by two months.

The state government recently gave in to the general body of corporators’ demand that they be given a two months’ extension before approving the draft DP 2034. The corporators now have till May 19 to approve the draft and avoid it from being approved without their changes. The DP is the blueprint for city’s infrastructural growth in the next two decades.

The newly-elected corporators had — in their first general body meeting 10 days ago— asked for an extension of two months to study the draft before approving it.

After writing to the state government, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) received a formal approval last week. The letter received by the civic body stated, “...it is expedient to extend the period for the submission of the said republished plan under section 30 of the said Act, to Government up to and inclusive of date 19/5/2017.”

This is for the third time in the past one year that the BMC has demanded for an extension to submit the draft DP 2034 stating that the new corporators need more time to study it. According to the original plan, the DP was to be finalised by November 2016 and the delays have been causing confusion among the real estate market as several developers are juggling between the DP 1991 and the new draft 2034 that is available in the public domain. This has resulted in several projects getting delayed and a drop in the civic body’s development revenue.

A senior civic officer from the DP department said, “We have almost completed our work as the general body will have to discuss the plan, suggest changes and approve it within two months before it gets deemed approved.” A source revealed that even now, the general body can get another extension if required as the Maharashtra Town Planning Act allows extension up to 24 months from the publication date of the last draft publication. The draft DP 2034 was published in May last year.

Earlier this month, the planning committee had handed over the DP report to the outgoing mayor, Snehal Ambekar on March 6. The committee had recommended 2,245 changes to the draft DP and will need the general body’s approval before it is forwarded to the state government.

Also read: Development Plan: Final step for BMC will be giant step for Mumbai