March 09, 2026

Dear Members,

Sub: Redevelopment updates

1. Updates on the Development Agreement

The Draft Development Agreement prepared by Advocate Krishna Tanna has progressed. The draft was read by members of the Managing Committee and the Redevelopment Committee. Views of these were consolidated and observations were made clause-by-clause. Similarly, the PMC made his observations clause-by-clause. Both sets of detailed observations were sent separately, to the Advocate. The Advocate studied these and called for a joint meeting with the Society and the PMC. A detailed clause-by-clause discussion was held in this joint meeting of the Advocate, the PMC and the Society. The Society was represented by the Hon. Secretary, Padmanabhan and RdC member, Sunil Singh. Mr. Dhargalkar represented the PMC and Advocate Krishna Tanna was present through the meeting. This was a full-day meeting at the PMC’s office. And it led to an appreciation of each other’s views and an alignment of thinking of all parties.

The Advocate has consolidated and incorporated the views, wherever necessary, emanating from this meeting and sent a revised draft of the DA. This revised draft has been sent to the developer for perusal.

The time-line regarding the DA is as follows – the Advocate was appointed on 25 January, she delivered a draft DA on 6 February. Our detailed observations and those of the PMC were given to her by 17 February. The joint meeting between the Society, the PMC and the Advocate was held on 27 February. The Advocate sent the revised draft DA late on 6 March.

On 6 March itself, the revised draft DA was sent to the developer. It has taken exactly six weeks from the appointment of the Advocate to the preparation of the draft DA, perusing it, revising it and sending it to the developer. Once we come to a commonly shared understanding and broad agreement of the draft DA with the developer, we will share the same with members. We have impressed upon the developer that time is of essence and we expect a quick revert from him / his lawyers.

Tentatively, we have agreed to meet the developer to discuss the DA on 19 March. The Advocate and the PMC have cautioned us (during our joint meeting) that our desire to expedite the DA should not set unrealistic timelines and we should not rush into signing the DA just to meet such deadlines. Their caution seems to be based on an expectation that there could be multiple meetings with the developer’s lawyers to come to a common agreement on the DA and this could take time.

2) Conversion of Land

The developer has been pursuing the conversion of our land from Class II to Class I with government authorities. Much of the paperwork at the Collector’s office has been completed. The Collector’s office sought documentary details pertaining to the composition of the Society during its formation and the evolution of its composition since then. Some additional details of BMC plan approval have been sought by Collector about the additional 6 flats that were constructed by society at a later stage. The Society is digging into past records (more than 40 years old) to meet these requirements. The developer is also putting efforts to convince the

Collector office about these approvals.

3. Soil Testing & application to Aviation Ministry by Developer 

The developer has sought the Society’s permission to conduct Geotechnical Survey to assess subsurface soil conditions. The survey involves drilling boreholes at 11 locations, by taking  2-3 locations at a time. The developer has informed us that survey will take about a month. The Society has granted this permission. Members may be inconvenienced during this period because of the noise these drilling activities would generate. We have informed them that work should not be carried out between 2PM and 4PM. Society has given Agami authority to apply for approval from Aviation Ministry for determination of height restriction and the same will be done at the earliest and intimated.

4. Hardship Compensation

The developer has offered to pay ten per cent of the Hardship Compensation as per the terms of the Tender document. It may be recalled that the SGM had decided to not accept this ten per cent. During the joint meeting with the Advocate and the PMC to discuss the DA, this point was also discussed. Both the Advocate and the PMC have advised us against accepting, at this stage, the ten per cent being offered by the developer. We should keep the pressure on completing the DA rather than accept ten per cent. The PMC also mentioned that while our Tender states that ten per cent must be paid by the developer upon appointment, accepting the ten per cent at this stage (issue of LOI) is also not the norm. The developer informs us that he is ready with the ten per cent hardship compensation, as per Tender condition, and could pay the same immediately. If the Society decides not to accept this, it is their decision and should not be construed as lack of funds available with the developer.

5. Tentative Floor Plans

We have discussed with the developer, the appointment of Architects and development of draft plans regarding the new building(s), the shape and composition of our new homes, etc. Discussions regarding the floor plan will begin with MC and members in about 10 days. This is not a discussion that will be limited to members of the Managing Committee and the Redevelopment Committee. We visualise the discussions regarding the broad contours to involve a larger number of people than just the MC and RdC. Ultimately, the design will have to be a consensus based on collectively thinking that is approved by everyone. While the process should be more inclusive, it does not have to involve everyone initially.

The first stage of this process will be the creation of a questionnaire by the developer to understand members’ desire. Then, there will be a draft plan of the layout. This layout will be brainstormed upon before it is finalised.

We would like the detailed floor plan to be a part of the Development Agreement. And, here lies a challenge. The floor plan will take time and we are in a hurry to sign the DA and take the corpus. The developer suggests that the DA can be signed first without the floor plan and the floor plan can be signed as a Supplementary to DA later.

Ideally, the approved floor plan should be part of the Development Agreement. We will take this matter for discussion with members at the earliest opportunity.

We are working on both, the DA and the floor plan. Ensuring that the two converge will depend upon the speed with which the developer clears the draft DA to our satisfaction and the speed with the developer is able to give us a floor plan that meets our collective approval.

We will keep the members updated on all the progress periodically.

Warm regards

Yours sincerely,

Hon. Secretary

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