At a seminar on `FSI and Mumbai's Development', speakers criticised the Government for making FSI, ``the most common tool to wriggle out of the real estate mess.''

The principal secretary of the State Urban Development Department, who chaired the seminar's first session on `FSI and Social Impact', described FSI as a double-edged weapon, saying, ``Whether it is serving destructive or constructive purposes is a debatable question.''

Senior bureaucrat Gautam Chaterjee said that with the government relying on FSI as an instrument of social change, infrastructural needs have been given a go-by. In this context, he said the slum rehabilitation scheme could prove to be more effective if slum dwellers were asked to contribute to their houses.

The seminar concluded with the suggestion that FSI should not be used by the government as a planning tool.Architect P K Das, one of the seminar's organisers, added that the only way to solve the problem of reconstruction of old buildings and slum rehabilitation is to hand over the premises on an ownership basis to the occupants and ask them to form co-operative housing societies to undertake development.

The need was also felt for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to be strengthened in its role as premier city planning institution. V K Phatak, planner, MMRDA said FSI is counter-productive to the city's development, as the burden of infrastructure is not taken into account when additional FSI is doled out.

Former Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) chief Chandrashekhar Prabhu observed that the 50 per cent and more of additional FSI allowed to private developers who undertake reconstruction of old cessed buildings in the island city was only largesse to builders. ``It has been noted that old tenants are more often than not driven out once the building isreconstructed, so it is builders alone who will benefit and not the old tenant it is meant for.''

Phatak noted that modifying the Development Control (DC) Regulation and inserting the provision of allowing extra FSI will not help solve the problem. ``What we need to do is overhaul all faulty laws like the Rent Control Act and the property assessment laws,'' he said.

Builder Niranjan Hiranandani spoke of the need to have a vision for the city's development. Incentive FSI or not, he pointed out, the city would continue to grow -- in an unorganised manner. However, chairman of the D M Sukhtankar committee which had recommended the incentive FSI said it was necessary if reconstruction was to be viable. He said the Government, however, had deviated from his suggestions that there should be a cap of 4 FSI in CITU and that old tenants be asked to contribute one-third the cost of reconstruction if MHADA was the developing agency.