Mumbai: Validity of building permissions extended till year end

Mumbai’s construction industry breathes a sigh of relief as the city’s civic commissioner announced auto-extension of all building permissions till the end of this year.

In a welcome move by the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation), the civic body has announced through a circular issued last week that the validity of all IODs (Intimation of Disapproval), commencement certificates and letters of approvals and development permissions, expiring, letters of approvals and development permissions, whose validities had expired on or after March 1, 2020, have been extended up to December 31, 2020. In addition to these, validities of other development permissions including Transferable Development Rights Certificates, letters of intent, debris management plans, no dues certificates from the various department have also been extended.

The BMC had earlier issued a circular in April extending the validities of all these documents till June 30, invoking the force majeure clause upon the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning Affairs has further extended the validity by nine months following a representation by the construction industry stakeholders. 

Furthermore, the city builders do not need to apply formally to the civic body to avail the concessions. As per the directives of the Union ministry, the BMC has now permitted auto extension to all building approvals subject to recovery of re-validation charges. The urban body has also announced levying zero penalties while granting renewals or re-validations.

While this extension is aimed to provide a boost to the construction industry that had been reeling under the adverse effect with the outbreak of coronavirus, most city builders are looking at further stimuli and industry-specific revival packages. Industry bodies have already approached the state and central ministries with demands for more perks and economic relief packages.

Maharashtra currently has 1,35,769 cases of coronavirus with 67,586 cases in the city of Mumbai.