Mumbai: In 2018, Nita building located at Dr. Annie Besant Road in Worli was declared dilapidated and came under the BMC’s C1 list, which means extremely dangerous. Since then, residents have been hoping that the building will go for redevelopment, but in vain.
After the building was declared dangerous, the society placed advertisements to carry out its redevelopment. As many as six developers showed interest and one of them was G S Constro and infra private limited, which was finalised by the members.
According to a resident, initially the developer promised 1,035 sq ft flats to each member. However, after inspection he clarified that it was not possible. The plot was initially said to be of 656 sq m but when measurements were taken it was turned out to be 580 sq m. This turned out to be an issue between the developer and residents.
Meanwhile, one of the members approached the city civil court, claiming that the building was not dilapidated. The court referred the case to the technical committee (TAG), which took 12 months to review the place. In 2019, the TAG committee reiterated that the building was dangerous to live.
Later, members approached the co-operative court, claiming the committee is illegal and last month the committee was dissolved.
After it was categorized as dangerous, the BMC disconnected electricity and water connection in December 2019. Since then, residents have been forced to rely on tankers. They have even installed electric generators. Currently, only three residents live in the building and they too are likely to vacate it in the next 15 days.
In 2019 when the underground Metro line work was in progress, the residents had to be evacuated to a safer place and Metro officials had compensated them for the same.
“We are ready to co-operate with others, but at this stage if we cancel our agreement with the developer he will sue us, which means a further delay. If we want to avoid any further delays, we all have to come to a midpoint. I personally think all the issues can be sorted with dialogue,” said Anil Panad, a resident.
Meanwhile, a local corporator said that the issue must be resolved between the residents and developer.
“There is a dispute going on between residents and the developer. Since the building has been declared highly dangerous under the C1 category, the residents and developer must work together and resolve the issues as early as possible,” said Ashish Chemburkar, local corporator.
