Mumbai’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Thursday morning started the demolition of the 100-year-old Jugal Kishore Building at Malad (west) in the western suburbs of the city.
Located right in the middle of SV Road, this three-storey building was constructed back in 1923. Being at the middle of traffic intersection, this residential structure was also a popular landmark among the locals. Civic body officials said that the main objective behind pulling down this building is to carry out a proposed road widening work in the area, aiming to decongest traffic.
The civic body served a notice to the building authorities two years ago following a structural audit that showed the building is ‘C-1’ meaning unfit for habitation.
The residents, at their own cost, then carried out a structural audit, which stated that the building could be repaired. Hence, the matter went to the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) which also asked the residents to vacate the premises.
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Later in 2022, the residents approached the civil court, which had given them a three weeks’ notice to vacate the premises and had ordered the BMC to demolish the structure.
“The three-week notice got over today. Therefore we started the demolition works early in the morning. The road needs to be widened since it creates an immense bottleneck during peak hours. The plot on which the building stands right now will be taken over by us for carrying out road-widening works,” said Kiran Dighavkar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner.
At present, this building houses 17 residential and 14 commercial tenements. Dighavkar said that being a private property, the BMC will not rehabilitate the tenants, but the owner of the property has agreed to rehabilitate the occupants.
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“Since the plot is being taken over for road widening, the owner is supposed to get compensation in return. Therefore, an agreement has been made, in which the owner will take care of the rehabilitation of the tenants and the cost will be borne by him from the compensation he gets in return,” Dighavkar said.
Earlier on December 28, the BMC had demolished illegal portions of the famous M M Mithaiwala outlet in Malad for road-widening purposes.
Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZmh0dHBzOi8vaW5kaWFuZXhwcmVzcy5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZS9jaXRpZXMvbXVtYmFpL2JtYy1kZW1vbGlzaGluZy1tdW1iYWktYnVpbGRpbmctcm9hZC13aWRlbmluZy04Mzc4MjEyL9IBa2h0dHBzOi8vaW5kaWFuZXhwcmVzcy5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZS9jaXRpZXMvbXVtYmFpL2JtYy1kZW1vbGlzaGluZy1tdW1iYWktYnVpbGRpbmctcm9hZC13aWRlbmluZy04Mzc4MjEyL2xpdGUv?oc=5
