AFTER nearly permitting the redevelopment of Crawford Market and then rejecting the proposal in July last year, the Shiv Sena-led general body of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) today decided that the redevelopment is still on.
However, with the BMC general body deciding to reopen the proposal as originally placed before them, whether an open tendering process will be applied to pick a developer or if a developer selected by the shopkeepers will get the contract is now a matter of discussion again.
Earlier, licenced shopkeepers had decided to appoint East & West Developers to demolish the existing structures and redevelop the market with an FSI of 4.
However, after protests from activists and Opposition party corporators, who stated that the BMC would incur losses, the Shiv Sena-led general body had rejected the proposal .
On Tuesday afternoon, there was much drama when RPI corporator Babasaheb Bansode proposed to reopen the redevelopment proposal. Half a dozen corporators stood up, wishing to speak. Not permitting anybody to voice their opinion, Mayor Shubha Raul declared Bansode’s notice of motion ‘passed in majority’.
After one and half years of mulling over the proposal on whether a transparent tendering process might be better, with then leader of the House Prabhakar Shinde even demanding a CID enquiry on April 7, 2006, it was a volte face by the Sena.
“This is a democracy and it is mandatory for the Mayor to let us speak. …we were ignored,” alleged Niyaz Vanu, Leader of NCP in the BMC, who walked out of the meeting and has organized for a protest outside Crawford market on Wednesday. “In the past one and half years, we have spent hours hearing speeches even from Sena members against the proposal,” added NCP’s Vidya Chavan.
The Congress said it was “in principle” opposed to the proposal, but was not given an opportunity to speak.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Kishore Gajbiye himself was all set to request the house not to reopen the proposal, since environment and heritage clearances were still pending.
Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak also hinted that the proposed redevelopment would be contrary to the new market redevelopment policy, which includes a tendering system to appoint a developer. Phatak said he believes in a transparent process, especially with the challenge of rehabilitating commercial PAPs from various projects. “We have to look at rehabilitation of about 4,000 PAPs for which we will need about 5.5 lakh square feet area, for which we have to use our own markets. We only have about 1.5 lakh square feet of land presently,” he added.
Mayor Shubha Raul and Leader of the Sena Sunil Prabhu were not reachable for comment. Senior Sena leader Prabhakar Shinde clarified that the House has only passed the reopening of the proposal and the proposal will stand for discussion once again. “The CID inquiry we have asked for should be done by the state and followed up by the BMC,” he added.
WHAT’S PROPOSED
The proposal to redevelop Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Market (Crawford Market) would allow the developer to demolish existing structures measuring 16,952 sq m at the market and redevelop the market vertically using an FSI of 4, wherein the total area available will be increased to a whopping 65,690 sq m. Of this, the MCGM will get 26,495 sq m and the tenants 39,195 sq m.