35 commercial structures razed in Dahisar CRZ area

The civic body has woken to the illegal slums thriving on the eco-sensitive zone in Ganpat Patil Nagar, Dahisar.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday demolished 35 commercial galas, spread over 5,000 sq ft, in the no-development coastal regulation zone.

The demolished structure included a hookah parlour, which was reportedly run by a local Congress leader, and many garages which were illegally operating in the area.

“The commercial structures had come up in the area and were proving to be a huge traffic bottleneck. There was an urgent need to demolish them before they procured fraudulent documents and obtained a stay order from the court,” said PR Masurkar, assistant commissioner of the ward (P-South).

Demolition was carried out with assistance from the MHB police station and 30 labourers. The operation began at 11am and continued for four hours.

Civic officials, few weeks ago, had demolished a warehouse, which had submitted bogus documents in the court in 2007 to escape demolition.

Meanwhile, 22 commercial structures along with 10,000 illegal hutments in the area are yet to be demolished.

DNA on August 19, had reported how the BMC has turned a blind eye to the illegal encroachments, which are making a mockery of the CRZ rules.

The civic body claimed that soon a massive drive will be carried out to demolish other hutments in the area. “A regular time-bound demolition programme is in place. Inventory of all the documents will be verified before demolition,” added Masurkar. “Duplication of documents is a major problem. Dwellers possessing bogus documents and trying to immune themselves from eviction will not be spared.”