The state government will have a proper roadmap for redeveloping all legal and illegal buildings in Thane districts, especially those in Mumbra, in the next three months, according to Thane’s guardian minister, Ganesh Naik.
“Our government has asked the urban development department to come up with an impact assessment report within three months which will showcase the proper planning of the city,” Mr Naik said at the site of the latest building collapse in Mumbra. He added, “The chief minister himself called a high level meeting on Friday at Sahyadri guest house which was attended by Mr Sharad Pawar, principal secretary of urban department. I also attended the meeting as guardian minister of the district. The CM had a thorough discussion to come up with a cohesive policy to rehabilitate almost 2.5 lakh people who are living in the most-dilapidated buildings in Thane. He asked the urban department to chalk-out a plan for cluster redevelopment with a floor space index (FSI) of four which would entail other basic infrastructure like roads, lanes, gardens, schools, colleges, hospitals, footpath etc.”
“The state government has already promulgated a policy to redevelop all the dilapidated buildings, especially those in Mumbra, on a priority basis. Almost 90 per cent buildings are illegal, but people are living there putting their lives at risk,” Mr Naik said.
The biggest building collapse incident took place on April 4 this year when an illegal building named Adarsh in Mumbra’s Lucky compound collapsed, killing 74 people. Twenty-three people were arrested in the case, out of which 21 are still in jail. These include municipal officers of the Thane Municipal Corporation, police officers, a builder, a local corporator and a journalist. Again, on June 21, the three-storied Balaram Mhatre building in Mumbra collapsed, killing ten and injuring at least 14 people. The builder is still lodged in jail in the case.
“Nexus between politician-builders-police and municipal officers must be broken and a well planned device should be placed to rehabilitate the survivors,” said activist Prasanna Nair.