Tall & Urban News

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has forcibly taken over possession of a 22-story rehab building in DB Realty’s One Mahalaxmi project at Rangwala Compound in Jacob Circle to quarantine high-risk people who came in contact with COVID-19 patients.

On 31 March 2020, the Executive Engineer of Building Proposals had written to DB Realty and its architect Pradeep Harachkar directing that under provisions of Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897, they will be taking over the 22-story rehab building for temporary accommodation and asked them to cooperate with Assistant Commissioner Makrand Dagadkhair of ward E.

However, the developer was reportedly reluctant to hand over possession of the building to the BMC. The building has been the source of repeated litigation between the developer and its 250 tenants as tenants displaced from Rangwala Compound have been demanding possession of their flats and have approached the Bombay High Court on several occasions. The redevelopment project has been in construction since 2010.

“We had to use the provisions of Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 to take over the building. Ward E has a large number of cases and all the hotels and guest houses in the ward are already full of quarantined patients. We need buildings that are ready to quarantine high- risk patients who have come in contact with COVID-19 positive patients,” Dagadkhair said.

In the notice posted on 25 April 2020 when BMC formally took possession, Dagadkhair said that he required the possession of the building to quarantine high-risk people who came in contact with COVID-19 positive people who are asymptomatic.

For more on this story, go to the Mumbai Mirror.