Mumbai, Dec 19 (PTI) The Bombay High Court on Monday reserved its order on a public interest litigation filed by two persons against what they claimed was the haphazard manner in which the redevelopment of BDD chawls in central Mumbai is proposed.

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The petition filed by city residents Shirish Patel and Sulakshana Mahajan claimed the manner in which the redevelopment is proposed would jeopardize the health, well-being and right to life of people in the metropolis.

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Senior counsel Aspi Chinoy, appearing for the petitioners, on Monday told a division bench of Acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice S G Chapalgaonkar that the redevelopment of the BDD chawl is just going to be like "modern slums".

"The developers have clustered all the tenants in 11 buildings without any space in between each building...so that they can construct a 70-storey building for sale," Chinoy said.

He alleged double standards are being applied towards poor people and those who are well off.

Advocate Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, appearing for state-run MHADA and the Maharashtra government, refuted the allegations and said none of the around 16,000 original tenants have till date raised any grievance on the redevelopment.

There are 206 BDD chawls, spread across 92 acres, comprising 120 in Worli, 32 along NM Joshi Marg, 42 in Naigaon and 12 in Sewri.

The state government has initiated the process for redevelopment of all the chawls, except for those in Sewri, which are built on Mumbai Port Trust land.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)