Build parking lots on your plots, get extra FSI

FSI is the ratio of the built-up area to total plot area. An FSI of 4 implies that construction up to four times the plot size is permissible.

Former CM Ashok Chavan had introduced a policy for allowing FSI perks to builders and land owners agreeing to construct public parking lots on their plots. Under norms, the government allowed an incentive construction area up to 50 per cent of the size of the parking lot. Though the policy was aimed at eliminating the public parking crunch in Mumbai, the builder lobby misused it for higher FSI gains.

After taking over as the CM in 2010, Prithviraj Chavan ordered revision in the policy norms. Accordingly, in 2011, the state government came out with a new policy where a cap was placed on the number of levels a parking lot can have. The maximum cap was left unchanged for both island city and suburbs then.

But with the number of proposals from the more populated suburbs not matching up to the response in the island city, the government has now proposed a higher perk in the suburbs.

Besides this, the new draft norms also propose to offer a blanket incentive of 50 per cent of the parking lot size regardless of the location of the parking lot. The 2011 policy offered variable incentives; with plots within 500 metres of railway stations getting 50 per cent incentive whereas those situated further away from the stations offered 40 per cent of the parking lot size as incentive area.
sandeep.ashar@expressindia.com