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Playground turns office block with help from BMC

Reserved Plot Worth 200 Crore Declared A Slum

Nauzer Bharucha TNN 

Mumbai: In the mid-1980s, one of Mumbai’s oldest and biggest private landowners, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, handed over a prime plot in Jogeshwari (East) to the BMC after the land was marked as a public playground in the city’s Development Plan (DP). Almost three decades later, the 2.5-acre 
plot touching the Western Express Highway flaunts a massive commercial tower built by a leading city developer as part of a slum redevelopment scheme. The plot is currently worth a couple of hundred crores. 
    While the BMC decided to acquire the plot in 1980 for use as a playground, it was declared a slum in the mid-90s, according to the builder. This allowed a portion of the land to be exploited commercially. 
    This is yet another case of how lands designated for public amenities have been gobbled up for private development. Mumbai enjoys the dubious reputation of having less than 0.03 acres of open space per 1,000 people—one of the lowest such ratios among major metropolises in the world. 
    The 10,792-square-metre plot at Shankarwadi in Jogeshwari (East) belonged to the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy family, which in the 19^th century owned over 10,000 acres in Mumbai. 
City loses open space to builder 
    The family of Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, once one of the city’s largest landowners, has complained to the BMC about the commercial tower that has come up on the prime 2.5-acre plot in Jogeshwari that the BMC acquired from it in the mid-80s for use as a public playground. The builder says the civic body declared the plot a slum in the mid-90s. JOGESHWARI PLOT ROW Original landowner says BMC stonewalled queries 
Mumbai: Earlier this week, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Pvt Ltd, the company which controls the family’s few remaining tracts of land, wrote a strongly worded complaint to municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar about the misuse of the land (a 2.5-acre plot acquired by the BMC in 1984) that was meant for the public. 
    The landowner filed a slew of Right to Information (RTI) applications to various BMC departments on the matter, but only received vague replies. 
    The firm may now move court. “We hope you will give your attention to this matter on a priority basis and see that the property acquired for a public purpose is not diverted for commercial purpose,” says the letter to the BMC chief, a copy of which is with TOI. “We as the owners of the land from whom the land was acquired expect that you will revert in the matter within a fortnight,” says the letter. 
    According to documents, the plot was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act after the BMC approved its acquisition for a playground in its meeting on August 7, 1980. The owner was paid around Rs 10 lakh and the land was taken over in 1984. Jeejeebhoy demanded that the compensation be enhanced and receivedanother Rs 15 lakh in 2007. When the land was acquired there was no slum on it. However, over 150 encroachers who had laid stake to the land were paid compensation and removed.Sometime last year, when a senior official of Byramjee Jeejeebhoy was travelling on the Western Express Highway, he was shocked to see a large office building on the plot. “A few months ago, we noticed that a commercial building of more than 10 storeys was under construction, besides some other construction on the rear of this building,” says the letter to the civic chief. “We inquired from the municipal corporation as to the present status of the acquired land in the Development Plan and we have officially been informed that it continues to be shown as playground in the Development Plan,” adds the letter. 
    The commercial building, called Ackruti Viva, is a project executed by the developer Hubtown (formerly known as Ackruti City). Vimal Shah of Hubtown told TOI that the land was declared a slum in the mid-1990s and they commenced work on it soon after. “Thirty-three per cent of the land has been reserved for a playground,” he said, adding that the land was already encroached upon by slums when Byramjee Jeejeebhoy handed it over to the BMC. “They (Jeejeebhoy) realized that this land had no market value because of the encroachments and hence served a purchase notice on the BMC,” said Shah. 
    Last August, Jeejeebhoy wrote to the BMC’s executive engineer (DP) inquiring about the present occupation of the land. The executive engineer directed the firm to contact the K-East Ward’s assistant engineer (maintenance). The assistant engineer in turn directed Jeejeebhoy to contact the K-East ward’s project officer. The landowner then filed an appeal under the RTI Act to the deputy chief engineer II (DP), who referred the matter to the superintendent of gardens and assistant commissioner (estates). The superintendent of gardens asked Jeejeebhoy to contact the deputy superintendent of gardens (western suburbs). “The horticultural assistant, K-East ward, and public information officer informed us to say that the information of the acquired land was not available in their offices,” Jeejeebhoy complained in its letter to the civic chief. 
    The landowner contacted several other civic departments, but received the same reply. “All officers have been passing the buck to the other and nobody has given any specified information on the subject,” said the letter. 
    A decade ago, the NGO Citispace had asked the HC to order that the entire land meant for a public amenity be returned to citizens, not just 33% under the slum rehabilitation scheme. The court passed an order directing the SRA to obtain the court’s permission before sanctioning any new slum rehabilitation scheme on spaces reserved for gardens, parks and playgrounds. “It is explicit from this order that no rehabilitation or resale can take place on reserved gardens, parks, playgrounds, recreational spaces, no-development zones, pavements, etc,” said Neera Punj of Citispace. 

Times View T he Jogeshwari plot is yet another example of an open space being gobbled up by ‘development’. A city in which open spaces are continually encroached upon, legally or illegally, denies its citizens one of the basic requirements of good, healthy living. Mumbai’s quality of life will continue to remain below par till our administrators and politicians understand what goes into the making of a great city.