BMC demolishes five floors of Vakola building

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday demolished the top five floors of the 12-storey residential Avadhut Complex in Suburban Vakola, as the building had Completion Certificate only up to floor seven. Two apartments on the demolished floors belonged to former Congress MLA Kripashankar Singh’s son, Narendra Singh. BMC sources said the top five floors were built illegally and that duplex apartments on the 11th and 12th floors of the building are in the name of Kripashankar Singh’s son, Narendra Singh.  

The BMC first served a notice under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) act to Kamla Group, which is the developer of the buildings, two years ago. The matter was then taken to the city civil court by the developer but was dismissed. Following this, the civic body sent a show cause notice to the developers yet again in October, asking them to demolish the illegal floors or submit proof of their legality.

However, the developers then took the matter to the high court. Civic sources informed that the matter was dismissed from the high court only recently, following which BMC carried out the demolition on Thursday. On Thursday, the civic body began to dismantle the top five floors of the building, but did not manage to complete the task.

Assistant commissioner of the H (East) ward, Prashant Gaikwad, said, “It is not easy to demolish top floors of such a tall building, so we never completely pull them down. There is always fear that the debris may fall down and injure someone, or weaken the building. We just dismantled doors and windows and make the place inhabitable. We will take down the remaining portions of the floors between 8 and 12 tommorrow.” Around 12 BMC officials and workers visited the building on Wednesday and hammered the windows out of their frames, pulled down doors and took them away, and broke the bathroom fittings and kitchen fittings of the five floors.