Petitioners, led by activist Medha Patkar, have urged the HC to order the state to take over Hiranandani's land in Powai, even as the developer has offered to submit a bank guarantee of Rs 27 crore. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Roshan Dalvi reserved its judgment on PILs filed by the activists accusing Hrianandani of turning its Powai land (meant for a low-cost housing project) into an upmarket housing scheme.
"The state should take over the Hiranandani land," said advocate Ashish Mehta, counsel for Patkar. "The houses under construction should be acquired by the state. The remaining land should be handed over to Mhada to construct low-cost houses."
Mehta pointed out statistics furnished by the BMC that the total permissible construction rights in the form of floor space index was over 5.24 lakh sq m, including the setback land and development plan road. "As per the agreement, 15% of this space (78,600 sq m) should have been given to the government," said the advocate.According to Mehta, so far Hiranandani has only built 234 flats or around 5,500 sq m and offered to hand over another 26,000 sq m. "This is nowhere close to what is due to the state. Hiranandani has denied flouting rules and has pointed to the arbitrator appointed to look into the tripartite agreement between the land owners, government and MMRDA which has found no irregularities. They said the original agreement was signed in 1986 and the petitioners have approached the court after over 20 years. Earlier, Hiranandani had offered to build 225 flats admeasuring 40 sq m each and 225 flats of 80 sq m each.
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