The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken a tough stance on JK House, the under-construction dream home at Breach Candy owned by the Singhanias of Raymond. It has asked the family to puncture two floors (make holes in the walls and the ceiling) of the 37-storey building and make two other floors 'unusable'.
It also wants the Singhanias to hand over space from the 15th to 18th floors, reserved for a museum, to the civic body. The BMC itself will then set up and run a museum in that space, giving citizens independent access to it. The BMC has decided not to revoke its 2013 stop-work order till the Singhanias comply with its latest order.
"Following an inspection of the site, we have asked them to puncture the 5th and 10th floors. The 20th and 25th can't be punctured, as they might affect the building's stability. Hence, we have asked them to make them unusable by installing cross beams there," said a senior civic official.
Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta confirmed to dna these instructions given to the developers.
Touted to be the country's second tallest residence after the Ambani's Altamount Road mansion, work at JK House came to a halt after a stop-work order was issued in 2013 by then municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte. Kunte had rapped the Singhanias for raising "total construction area more than 10 times the FSI computation".
The BMC has also asked the Singhanias to hand over space for the museum, which will be set up all the way from the 15th to the 18th floors of the building. "They will have to hand over the floors reserved for the museum. The BMC will set up its own museum, for which citizens must get independent access. Unless, they comply with these conditions, we will not revoke the stop-work order," the official said.
The Singhanias and the family's flagship Raymond Ltd did not respond to detailed email queries. The company's corporate communications head, Rohit Khanna, too did not respond to calls and text messages.
JK House stands on a 1 acre plot, which originally housed the family's ground-plus-two bungalow built in the 1960s. The existing building comprises basement plus stilts, shops on the first and second floors, parking and two refuge floors between the third and 14th floors and a museum between the 15th and 18th. The 19th floor houses service area, while from the 20th up to 36th are residences, fire refuge areas, amenities and AC plant rooms.
The building's height is 142.56 metres.
Kunte had observed that excessive concessions granted to the developer had caused a "mammoth" construction of 27,400 sqmt against a floor space index of 2,570 sqmt.
