Newlinkroad's Blog

Residents paid $500 for sat images of illegal structures

Sharad Vyas, TNN, Nov 17, 2010, 06.28am IST

Tags:Illegal Structures|BMC

MUMBAI: The BMC will not miss out on the opportunity to use high-resolution satellite images to demolish more illegal structures that have come up on the city’s footpaths and roads. Like a 2,640-square-foot commercial warehouse that was razed in New Link Road at Dahisar on Tuesday, 25 more illegal commercial structures may turn to rubble soon. All this, thanks to an inspired group of citizens who struggled for days to procure these images from a private company, GEO EYE Satellite.

After the New Link Road Residents Forum finally bought the images for more than $500 from the company, several new windows of opportunity opened up. Soon, they filed a public interest litigation (PIL), which was followed by a court order. “Even the court took notice of our images when we compared them the 2010 images. The BMC was then forced to take note of these illegal structures,” said Harish Pandey, member of the forum.

It was found that while in 1995 there were only 400 structures in the Ganpat Patil Nagar slum area, the number increased to 850 in 2000, and then to more then 8,000 in 2010. When the BMC began to carry out demolitions in accordance with the court order, based on the satellite imagery, several produced forged documents and got a stay from the court.

The owner of the private structures had claimed that his building was included in a local census carried out in 1978. He even produced documentary evidence from the collector’s office to support his claim.

“But when we compared images from 2000 with those in 2010, we found that the land was vacant at the time,” said ward officer Parag Masurkar.

The proof of the success of the citizens’ battle is that of the 8,000 residential structures, some 400 have been already demolished. Of the 200-and-odd commercial structures, all got demolished but for 26, which had produced evidence in court.

“But, one by one, we submitted the images to the court in our reply on each of these cases. The court recognized the value of the images and has started lifting the stay on all of them,” said a senior official.

Read more: Residents paid $500 for sat images of illegal structures – The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Residents-paid-500-for-sat-images-of-illegal-structures/articleshow/6939151.cms#ixzz15W7VK6Nz