The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) approved applications by house owners in Mumbai to expand their buildings, including the bungalows of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and actor Amitabh Bachchan.
The applications were moved earlier by the house owners after the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) regulations were diluted in 2019, permitting further construction of buildings near the Mumbai coast.However, the 2019 MCZMA notification diluting the regulations has been challenged before the National Green Tribunal, which agreed to hear the petitions and sought responses from the union ministry of environment forests and climate change (MoEF&CC).
Tendulkar's home is at Perry Cross Road close to Bandra's Carter Road shoreline and it falls under CRZ II. The bungalow currently has ground plus three floors and a part fourth floor for residential use and Tendulkar is planning to develop the partial fourth floor into an entire one and a full fifth floor. The expansion was not permitted as per the floor space index (FSI) before the 2019 notification.“Addition/alteration in the existing bungalow with part 4th and full 5th floor is permitted subject to existing FSI norms and other regulations as on date of publication of CRZ Notification, 2019,” the authority said in its recent order. Bachchans have also sought permission to expand their home Kapol Society in Juhu Vile Parle, which has a basement, ground and two upper floors. Jaya Bachan moved an application for building the entire second floor, which is only partly built, and an additional floor for residential use