BMC Tells Bombay HC It Will Remove Encroachments From Private Powai Road Near School Used By Public

Mumbai, Feb 27: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that it will remove encroachments from a privately owned road in Powai used by the public, near a school, while highlighting that the stretch continues to remain under private ownership as it has not been formally handed over to the civic body.

Petition by school over safety concerns

A bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Abhay Mantri was hearing a petition filed by Beaumont HFSI School and its principal, Kalyani Patnaik, raising concerns over hutments and temporary structures obstructing access to the institute and posing safety risks to students, particularly pre-primary children and their parents.

Road remains privately owned

In an affidavit filed pursuant to earlier court directions, Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani stated that the disputed East Avenue Road — referred to in the petition as a 90-feet road — is an existing road under the Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) 2034 but continues to remain a private road since the landowner and developer failed to complete procedural requirements for handing over possession to the BMC.

“The Land owner/Developer has not made any efforts to complete the procedural compliance since 2020. Since the Land Owner/Developer failed to submit documents, the application was not proceeded further due to non-compliance of the papers. Hence, the possession of the above mentioned road is not taken over by the BMC till date,” the BMC affidavit read.

Allegations against developer

The civic body alleged that after earlier demolition of illegal hutments from adjoining developable plots, the landowner promptly secured those buildable and commercially valuable parcels using private security and temporary compound walls.

However, the adjoining road portion, being a non-buildable area, was allegedly left unprotected, allowing fresh encroachments to come up along the stretch.

The affidavit further stated that the road had been constructed by the developer without obtaining mandatory clearances from municipal departments such as roads, sewerage and hydraulic engineering, and lacked infrastructure complying with civic standards, including proper storm-water drainage and street lighting.

“Therefore, though the road is being used by the public and it has become a public road for operational reasons, it is still not a public road as per the regulation and design,” the civic body underlined.

Action plan before court

BMC advocate Dhruti Kapadia told the court that the corporation had prepared a roadmap for removal of encroachments while following due process of law.

The bench clarified that it was only seeking an action plan, observing, “We are not going to sit on the Commissioner’s chair and decide on things. We just want a roadmap.”

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Demolition process and next hearing

The BMC said it has already removed mobile toilets from the site and discontinued water tanker services earlier provided there. It added that encroachments would now be cleared after issuing notices under Section 314 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act and sought liberty to recover demolition costs from the developer.

The matter will be heard next on March 4.

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