Mumbai SRA Probes Luxury Tower Over Transit Homes

Mumbai’s Slum Rehabilitation Authority has issued a notice over a 22-storey luxury tower in Bandra, where six floors meant for permanent transit camp homes were allegedly altered without approval. The developer has a month to restore the approved plan or face prosecution. The case tests how incentive building rights are policed in one of India’s costliest districts, and whether housing meant for displaced residents is actually delivered.

The Bandra luxury tower, called Palmera, stands on Turner Road, where homes are priced at roughly ₹70,000 to ₹1 lakh per sq ft. It occupies the site of a veteran film actor’s former bungalow. The notice, dated 6 October, invokes sections of the state’s town planning law and directs the developer to restore the seventh to twelfth floors to the sanctioned design. Officials found the discrepancies during a 30 September inspection, which followed a right-to-information application filed by a local activist about six months earlier. The plan approved in September 2023 reserved those six floors for transit tenements, to be handed to the authority on completion. Such homes house people displaced by public works, including road widening, railway projects and metro construction. A senior official said Mumbai needs at least two lakh of them.

Developers who build them earn incentive floor space index, the ratio of permitted floor area to plot size, under Regulation 33(11) of the city’s development rules. Allowable FSI rises from three to four, depending on road width. Alternatively, a developer may meet the obligation at another site, subject to approval, by paying a premium equal to 40 per cent of the difference in ready reckoner values, the government’s benchmark property rates. The official said a proposal to shift this tower’s obligation to Andheri has not been approved. A company representative said the notice was understood to be a minor compliance matter and would be addressed. Meanwhile, the authority has put the developer’s separate application to combine a letter of intent for another scheme on hold until it complies.

The case has drawn criticism. An advocate argued that projects meant for sale are treated as rehabilitation buildings during construction, which lets developers claim extra FSI and concessions. He also questioned whether the authority should act as planning body for such schemes. The activist alleged the public exchequer could lose premiums and charges, while added floor area strains water and power supply. He said he would approach the court if the practice continued. The allegations are unproven. What follows is whether the floors are restored, how the relocation request is decided, and whether transit housing is built where displaced residents need it.

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Mumbai SRA Probes Luxury Tower Over Transit Homes