Friday 26 August 2016

Bombay Dyeing Mill Land – handover to BMC,Mhada: High Court







The textile baron Bombay Dyeing has been ordered by the Bombay High Court to hand over the Mill land of around 66,651 sq.ft to MHADA and BMC. The land is at Spring Mills in Wadala and it will be handed over to BMC and government development agency Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority. In turn the BMC and MHADA are going to use the land for public housing, open spaces, accommodating te mill workers and for other public amenities. The order of the HC will allow the Bombay dyeing to go ahead with its plans of redevelopment of the entire land at Lower Parel. The court has said its interim order would ensure availability of land to the public authorities.

While passing the interim orders the court said that it would decide on the applications filed by the unions over valuation of land later. It was pleaded by the unions that the value of land at Lower Parel was higher than at Wadala while opposing the BMC’s decision to allow the company to amalgamate the land. The unions in the main petition, had further claimed that more areas of the plot should have been earmarked as textile mill land to be handed over to the BMC and MHADA. 

With this order the BMC which was finding scarcity of land for public purposes will now get around 32,828 sq.meters of land from Bombay Dyeing which will be used as open spaces, recreation ground and other public amenities. On the other hand the Bombay Dyeing will be allowed to go ahead with its plans to develop on its land multi storeyed residential, commercial and retail projects, IT spaces and hotel.

In March 2010, the Bombay Dyeing was served with stop - work notices by the BMC as the company had failed to hand over land at its erstwhile mills in Wadala and Lower Parel that was meant for the BMC and MHADA. The city monitoring committee that oversees of the city’s mill lands had directed to issue of stop – work notice to the company. Bombay Dyeing had challenged the notices in the Bombay High Court. 

In May 2012 the HC had ruled that the Bombay Dyeing would have to surrender the land to the BMC and MHADA which was challenged in an appeal before the Supreme Court by the company. The appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court. Then, the BMC approved the amalgamation of the Wadala and Lower Parel lands.

The workers union moved the high court claiming that the BMC and MHADA should get more land and it was also alleged that the value of the land at Lower Parale was worth more than the plot at Wadala.

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