MUMBAI: The

needs portions of

’s

bungalow Prateeksha and a neighbouring property for the widening of a road. Almost all of the 45ft-wide Sant Dnyaneshwar Marg, which connects Juhu’s Chandan Cinema area to Link Road, has been broadened to 60ft, except the stretch in front of the two properties.

The BMC’s problem is that the owner of Prateeksha’s neighbouring property, a businessman, K V Satyamurty (80), has refused to part with the 27% of his land that the civic body needs for the road (see graphic).

TOI

first reported about the Prateeksha matter in October 2017.

Satyamurty recently received a notice from the BMC that the wall of his compound needs to be demolished for road widening. A BMC source said Bachchan too has been intimated about the impending acquisition.

Satyamurty has moved court, alleging that civic officials were harassing him and Bachchan “for ulterior motives”. The BMC, on the other hand, says that Satyamurty had back in 2001 redeveloped his property by raising a seven-storey building, but constructed far in excess of the FSI permitted to him. The BMC says that the 115 sqm it needs from his 420 sqm property for the road would offset this additional construction the businessman did—as per the civic body’s acquisition policy, property owners are compensated with additional construction rights. The BMC says Satyamurty is refusing to part with land which, thus, rightfully belongs to the city. Satyamurty has called the BMC’s version of the matter false.

A civic official said road widening in the area began last year to ease congestion. He said that if portions of Satyamurty and Bachchan’s properties aren’t acquired, the work done till now on Sant Dnyaneshwar Marg will come to naught, as the roughly 50-metre stretch outside the properties would end up creating a bottleneck. “Work on the road is now stuck for six months. We gave Satyamurty till November 15 to handover the land we need. The next step would be forcible acquisition,” said a BMC official.

Satyamurty said, “There is no need to make the road wider. I don’t understand why the BMC is insisting on it. They are harassing me and Bachchan. We will fight for justice till the top court.”