TMC issued stop-work dictate for Lodha Project

Casa Univis, a luxury township project by Lodha builders in Thane Ghodbander got a stop-work notice from Thane Municipal Corporation for excess constructions.

This project includes 23towers on 55acres on Ghodbunder Road in Thane. According to sources municipal authority has issued an order on 23rd Feb to Lodha Project citing violation of norms, including more floors than sanctioned.

As per reports said, the developer had submitted 11 separate proposals for separate buildings at the project, but never submitted any integrated proposal to the corporation. “In all the 10 proposals that we had sanctioned, there is some violation or other. Most of these relate to excess construction. In at least three buildings seven floors were approved, but the developer has built 18 floors,” said one of the sources in the corporation. Abhisheck Lodha, managing director of Lodha Developers, could not be reached on his mobile, while text messages failed to elicit any response. One out of the 11 proposals was not even processed on the request of the developer’s architect. However, Lodha has constructed a 12-storey building on this very plot without any permission, and the corporation has issued an order to demolish this entire structure, the source said. Following the orders, Lodha Developer filed an application with the corporation on March 4 showing an intention to merge all these plans into one. The realty developer has indicated that it was ready to pay a penalty to get these structures regularized.

“It’s very difficult now to get approvals for an amalgamated plan for these buildings. In fact, allowing such integration itself may not be possible,” the source said. According to him, the layout situation is not flexible and the land already has these structures constructed on it. Also, when the developer decides to integrate the project, it will require environmental clearance from the ministry of environment and forest due to the size of the project.