Gokhale said the cabins, which have been vacant since the MiC was wound up last month, would henceforth be occupied by the four additional municipal commissioners, some deputy municipal commissioners and chairpersons of the statutory committees -- the education and civic improvements committees.

The cabins -- ten in all -- are on the second, third and fourth floor of the BMC headquarters and together occupy an area of nearly 20,000 square feet. There are four cabins each on the second and third floor, while the fourth floor has two. Every cabin has twoante-chambers, and there are two conference rooms on each of the floors.

The four AMCs will be shifted to the second floor, while some deputy municipal commissioners and chairpersons of the statutory committees will occupy the third floor. Gokhale, it is learnt, argued that it would be easier for the AMCs and DMCs to function from these cabins as they would be located closer to the committee chairpersons' cabins. He added that now that the committee chairpersons would not be as powerful as the MiC members, they would have fewer visitors than the AMCs and DMCs.

However, the size of the cabins will be reduced and partitions made to accommodate all the staff from the AMC and DMC offices in the available space, Gokhale said.

According to sources, there was no opposition to his proposal from any of the group leaders who attended the meeting.

There had been a lot of criticism when the proposal to construct the cabins had been mooted by the MiC. The then mayor Nandu Satam did not make the move public, and itcame under severe attack mainly because the BMC was already facing a deficit of Rs 600 crore. Yet the MiC went ahead with the plan. An amount of Rs 4 crore was initially approved for the cabins, but the cost finally went up to more than Rs 6 crore.