The department's directive to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to amend the Development Control (DC) Regulations, 1991, to rev up its scheme for reconstruction of Mumbai's 19,000-odd old and dilapidated cessed buildings has only steered the city on the road to hell, urban designers say.

Also, easing height restrictions on constructions and augmenting Floor Space Index (FSI) for developers who participate in the scheme will increase accommodation in South Mumbai, which is already gagging on its current population.

Urban planners, environmentalists, and tenants' groups now intend to stall what they view as a freebie to builders by moving court against the amended rules.

Under the revised DC rules, which the BMC amended last week, developers undertaking reconstruction of dilapidatedcessed buildings will receive a minimum 2.5 FSI or 50 per cent additional FSI, whichever is more. After rehabilitation, existing tenants will get a minimum 225 sq ft and maximum 750 sq ft accommodation area free of cost.

On July 1, the state government issued directions to the BMC under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1996, to modify the DC rules to entice private builders and developers to undertake reconstruction of cessed buildings. Among the other beneficiaries are tenants who are willing to reconstruct their own buildings, the BMC itself and the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).

Prior to the amendment, the government was saddled with the problem of reconstructing about 19,000 crumbling buildings, most of them constructed prior to 1940 in the island city, with MHADA's Mumbai Repairs and Reconstruction Board (MRRB) able to rebuild a negligible 350-odd structures over the last 25 years.

The Urban Development Department therefore appointed a study group underthe chairmanship of former municipal commissioner D M Sukhtankar in June 1996 to thread its way out of the problem. It was on the basis of the group's report, submitted in July 1997, that the government decided to modify the DC rules. However, reconstruction itself could not commence for over a year till the modifications were effected by the BMC last week. At present, 41 proposals are pending with the BMC for approval, says MRRB Chairperson Madhu Chavan.

E Y Prasade, chief engineer, Development Plan (DP), says it was his ``obigation'' to pass the government's orders though he admits that the modified rules will lead to as much as 15 FSI being made available to builders. This would place an unbearable strain on the infrastructure in South Mumbai. Housing activists feel the BMC is also extracting its pound of flesh since it too will get an FSI of 4 for `housing project-affected dishoused' against the 1.33 FSI it received till now.

Former MHADA president, Chandrashekar Prabhu, who plans to approach thecourts, says, ``There is no option. The government has pushed us against the wall. It appears to be a complete strategy to sell the city to builders at the expense of the old and original occupants.''His observation is echoed by Kisan Mehta of the Save Bombay Committee who also plans to move court. Environmentalist Rashmi Mayur and tenants groups like the Tenant Action Committee, Tenant and Residents' Association of Bombay, Federation of Old Buildings Tenants' Association as well as the Bombay Environment Action Group are among the others who are spoiling for a legal battle.

Prabhu and Mayur say infrastructure like water and sewerage disposal systems will take a hammering if the new rules are implemented.