The Maharashtra government is looking at proposing a floor space index (FSI) of 2 in the Mumbai suburbs after making amendments to the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act.
?The Act needs an amendment and then we will be going for an FSI of 2 in the Mumbai suburbs,? Maharashtra minister of state for housing Sachin Ahir said on the sidelines of the CII national conclave on real estate. FSI is the ratio of the total floor area of buildings on a certain location to the size of the land of that location. Thus, an FSI of 2 would indicate that the total floor area of a building is two times the gross area of the plot on which it is constructed. Early this month, the Bombay High Court dismissed the Maharashtra government’s decision to increase the FSI in Mumbai suburbs from to 1.33 from 1.
The court held that the government?s notification of April 2008, finalised in October 2008, was ?manifestly arbitrary? as section 22 of MRTP Act, 1966, ?does not expressly confer any power on the state government whether regulatory or compensatory? to grant such FSI. ?It is not open for the state government or the planning authority to contend that under the guise of giving grant of additional FSI of 0.33, they are entitled to charge a fee for the purpose of providing amenities,? Justices FI Rebello and AA Sayed stated. ?I totally agree that Mumbai needs higher FSI if it has to compete with the global markets. Mumbai needs to grow vertically, as horizontal growth is limited. We need more skyscrapers and hence more FSI,? Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj chairman & country head Anuj Puri said.