The Lower Parel-Worli belt is the city’s most buzzing destination for realty development. But the traffic police have started keeping a tight rein on the activity.
As per norms enacted last year, a private builder could avail of up to 50% of the built-up area of public parking space on a plot as incentive FSI. But the department, contending that the parking requirement in the area has been taken care of, has begun rejecting proposals for the creation of more parking space. A source said the joint commissioner of police (JCP), traffic, has rejected at least six proposals in the last month.
While a proposal each was submitted by the Wadia-promoted Bombay Dyeing Group, the Birla-promoted Century Textiles and the Ruia-led Phoenix Mills, three were submitted by the K Raheja Universal Builders Group (two for Lower Parel and one for Worli).
The JCP, traffic, is a key member of the high-powered committee appointed to look into such proposals. The committee — which includes the municipal commissioner, metropolitan commissioner, deputy director (town planning), and chief engineer (roads) — processes a proposal only if the JCP ratifies it.
Striking off the six projects, the JCP remarked: “The parking requirement of the area is now adequately saturated.”
Since the incentive FSI rule was enacted, the committee approved projects which would collectively provide public parking space for about 28,000 vehicles.
The projects in the Lower Parel-Worli belt alone would account for 23,000 of these.
“There is a need to wait till the first few proposals in the vicinity are operationalised,” the JCP remarked. “The utilisation of these parking spaces and their impact on freeing road space in the area needs to be understood before approving any more projects.”
A similar stand is likely to be taken for projects along LBS Marg — another over-utilised pocket — a committee member said.
The incentive FSI scheme has earned the ire of transport planners and activists, some of whom even term it as “just another avenue to release additional buildable area to builders”. For every public parking space provided, a builder stands to benefit by 320 sq ft.
The Mumbai Environmental Social Network, a think tank devoted to transport and environment issues, recently demanded a roll back of the scheme. Even the state urban development department has expressed the need for a more rational appraisal of the scheme.
