Matharpacady project: Residents seek deal amid high-rise dilemma

Developers assure heritage area, church will remain unaffected; mixed support by residents

- MANOJ RAMAKRISHNAN

Even as the company implementing the Matharpacady redevelopment project says that it has obtained all mandatory clearances for the work, residents, some of whom were shifted from dilapidated buildings to transit camps nearly four decades ago, have called for a compromise to solve the dispute with neighbours over the reconstruction of the heritage-listed precinct.

A recent notification by the BMC allows the area to be rebuilt under the cluster development scheme, which means that the locality in Mazgaon, dotted with homes built in Indo-Portuguese style, can be replaced with high-rise buildings. The area is listed as a Grade 3 precinct under Mumbai s urban heritage laws. While a group of residents want to preserve the village, which dates back to the 16th century, their neighbours who occupy small tenements in dilapidated buildings want redevelopment that could give them bigger flats.

Shreepati Group, the company implementing the project, said that the Development Control and Promotion Regulations 2034, the planning blueprint for the city, has provisions for redevelopment for Grade 3 structures. “The HPC (Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee), the government and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority has approved the cluster redevelopment scheme.

Letter of Intent has been issued,” Rajendra Chaturvedi, chairman emeritus, said in a statement to this newspaper.