The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has directed the closure of all three entrances of Growel’s 101 Mall in Kandivali (E) citing them as unauthorised access points. The direction comes after over nine months that the Building Proposals department had ordered action against the mall’s illegal usage of access roads.
After the Bombay High Court ordered to shut down the Growel’s 101 Mall for not complying with the environmental norms, the BMC has also started taking action against the mall for a series of violations. While the BP department has initiated the process to prosecute the mall for lack of occupancy certificate, the Buildings and Factory department has also issued notices to the mall for illegal construction on its premises.
Recently, the ward’s maintenance department has also directed its road department and the highway cell to shut down all three entrance points of the mall, designating them as unauthorised access points. The BP department had directed the R/South ward on June 25, 2024 to take action against Growel’s 101 Mall for using unauthorised access roads.
The Free Press Journal had reported on December 8 that the mall has been using three access roads as entrances to the mall, including two on Akurli Rd and one on the Western Express Highway (WEH), while only entrance on Akurli Road has been approved by the civic body. A legal notice issued to chief minister, BMC chief and other departments by Kandivali-based social activist Shishir Vivekanand Shetty, founder of Lokhandwala Residents’ Association (LRA), also highlighted the unauthorised entrances.
Replying to the activist’s advocate Rishi Bhatt on March 28, the maintenance department of R/South ward informed that the ward’s roads department has been asked to construct footpaths with kerbs on both the access roads used by the mall on Akurli Rd. It has also directed the roads department to not provide any access as it has been utilising the access points without obtaining the necessary carriageway permissions.
It has also asked the assistant engineer (planning) of the highway cell to initiate necessary action against the mall for using a 12-metre-wide access from the WEH. It said that the mall has violated the conditions on which the access was approved by the Development Plan (DP) department in 2012. The condition included keeping the reserved recreational ground plot vacant but the mall has been running a ‘pay-and-park’ facility on the plot, as reported by The Free Press Journal earlier.
The BMC has issued multiple notices to the mall for using unauthorised entrances earlier in July and October 2024 but has never taken any action against it. However, this is the first time that the mall has directed strict instructions of closing down the mall’s all three entrances.
Talking to The Free Press Journal, Shetty said, “Before blaming the mall, it is the corporation that is to be blamed. We have brought to the ward officer Manish Salve’s attention, time and again, the mall’s violations, including its illegal entries, failure to obtain environment clearance and the failure to hand over the DP and RG plot. If the ward office had initiated this action earlier, the mall would have handed over the reserved plot until now. Notices and directions have been served earlier as well but the corporation can be trusted only after it acts.”
