Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

In what is being seen as a snub to alliance partner Shiv Sena’s chief Uddhav Thackeray in the run-up to the Mumbai municipality polls, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Friday deleted 33 hectare of Aarey land from the no-development zone for the Colaba-Seepz Metro line inside the ecologically sensitive Aarey Milk Colony. Thackeray has been a fierce opponent to the idea of a car depot in Aarey.

Watch What Else Is Making News:

The Urban Development (UD) department, which the chief minister heads, has now reserved the entire land parcel for the “Metro car depot/workshop, allied activities, and commercial zone.” The CM-led department notified the modification Friday.

Elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest civic body, are due in February. The model code of conduct is expected to kick off in the first half of January.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is running an election campaign that projects Fadnavis’s measures to set up a network of Metro lines to ease traffic congestion in the city as a major achievement. The CM will be the face of the party’s campaign, confirmed sources.

Ally Shiv Sena, on the other hand, has staunchly opposed the Metro car depot at Aarey. Thackeray’s son and Shiv Sena’s youth wing leader Aaditya is spearheading the campaign against the Aarey depot.

“The car depot will have an adverse impact on the overall biodiversity of Aarey Milk Colony. Nowhere else is any forest available within a metropolis,” Aditya had said earlier, airing his party’s stand. The Shiv Sena has also been up in arms against the “displacement” of families from the Marathi heartland of Girgaum for the same Metro project.

Fadnavis’s move is also expected to rile a section of locals, and environmental activists, who have come together under the “Save Aarey” banner.

Sources also said that the CM’s decision to include a “commercial zone” in the new reservation for the land is likely to attract protests. When opposition to the project was peaking last March, Fadnavis had constituted a committee under Mumbai Metropolitan Commissioner, UPS Madan, which was tasked with the responsibility of studying whether or not the depot could be situated elsewhere.

The committee was asked to recommend measures to minimise the “green damage” if such a relocation was not feasible. On April 1 this year, the panel submitted a report to Fadnavis, where it ruled out relocation. Instead it suggested a modified alignment where “50 per cent of the affected trees” could be saved during construction.

For trees that had to be axed, the panel recommended a condition that for each tree axed, three more be planted. Fadnavis has accepted the panel’s recommendation now, and has okayed the plan for the Aarey car depot.

Work for building stations for the Colaba-Seepz Metro line has already begun in some places. On Friday, Fadnavis also issued orders for reserving another 27 hectare land in Dahisar for the Dahisar-Mankhurd Metro Line’s car depot.

The land, situated in a residential zone, was reserved for a Remote Receiving Station. “We are inviting suggestions and objections from the people over the modifications,” said an official. In another related decision, the MMRDA was designated as the “Special Planning Authority” for eight suburban plots identified for construction of Metro depots and casting yards.

Sops on offer

Eyeing election gains, the CM has also cleared the proposal for incentivising redevelopment of dilapidated tenanted buildings in the suburbs of Mumbai.

For redevelopment of tenanted buildings (over 30 years old), which are tagged dangerous to live in by the Mumbai municipality, the state will provide FSI incentives to builders. On the lines of the redevelopment of cessed structures in the island city, the government will offer incentives proportionate to the extent of existing built up area rehabilitated.

While the FSI for redevelopment of cessed structures can be taken up with an FSI of three or more, the government’s decision for the suburbs limits the perk to the proportion of rehabilitation built-up area. “In most cases the FSI permitted for dilapidated tenanted buildings will be less than three,” said an official. “In the case of cessed structures, the government collects a cess. There is no such provision for tenanted buildings,” the official added.

A notification inviting suggestions and objections from the public is expected to come out in the next few days. In the island city, the government has given a push to the much-delayed redevelopment of the century-old BDD chawls.

The UD Friday issued a final notification sanctioning regulations for the redevelopment of the chawls. Proposing to develop the chawls on the lines of the cluster redevelopment, the state will offer free house of 500 square feet each to all tenants of the BDD chawls, which are situated in Worli, Naigaon, NM Joshi Marg, and Sewree.

The rehabilitation area offered is the higher ever compensation given for any redevelopment project in the city. The government has claimed that the two decisions will provide relief to thousands of families in the island city and suburbs.

While a section of chawl residents are opposing the government’s redevelopment model, Fadnavis is also eyeing generation of 61 lakh square feet of additional public housing stock through the project.

FSI for public parking lots

The state has delegated the power for grant of additional FSI to private owners constructing public parking lots to the Mumbai municipal commissioner. The move comes at a time when a permission granted by the previous regime in the state has come under a cloud.

The state has said that the decision was in line with Fadnavis’s previous decisions for delegating similar powers for construction of educational, medical, institutional buildings, and star-category hotels to the municipality. The government has also withdrawn the requirement of its prior approval for construction of areas over 753 sq.feet in projects for redevelopment of buildings gutted in fire or damaged in collapses.

Textile museum takes wing

The state Friday issued orders designating an area of about 4.73 lakh square feet inside the India United Mill land in Mazagaon (Mill No 2 and 3) as a recreation ground cum textile museum. While the mill site is designated as a heritage precinct and six structures inside it have been accorded heritage status, the state has permitted the municipal corporation to use the “land under these heritage structures for the textile museum.”

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Mumbai News, download Indian Express App.