MUMBAI, Nov. 29 -- The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon roll out a revised and amended bottleneck removal policy, to curb the malpractices that emerged soon after its launch in 2021. In its new avatar, system-generated NOCs will be issued and demolition of structures (slums) for road widening will be tracked by GIS. Overall, it will ensure a clearer chain of accountability. The policy was suspended last month by Bhushan Gagrani, civic chief and administrator, after its largescale misuse, allegedly by ward officials in collusion with the builder lobby, came to the fore. Additionally many roadworks remain incomplete despite NOCs being issued. For instance, despite NOCs being issued, in Parel's F South-Ward, four structures remain on VY Dahiwalkar and Sewri Station roads which were supposed to be demolished as they come in the way of roadwork. In Worli's G South-Ward, of the 11 listed roads major stretches such as Dr E Moses Road, Senapati Bapat Marg, Gokhale Road, PB Road, Ganpat Jadhav Marg, Hardikar Road and Gawde Chowk are yet to be cleared as the demolition of 33 of 42 encroachments, are still pending. On October 14, HT had published an internal BMC report submitted by additional municipal commissioner Ashwini Joshi, flagging several concerns on the bottleneck removal policy, which was meant to streamline the road widening scheme and rehabilitate displaced residents but was being arbitrarily and selectively applied. Joshi had underscored that instead of prioritising three roads at a time, as outlined in a 2023 circular, ward officials had been drawing up multiple road-widening lists simultaneously, which resulted in incomplete demolitions and unfinished roads, thereby undermining the policy's core objective of clearing bottlenecks. Beyond this, instead of rehabilitating original beneficiaries in the same ward as the regulation mandates, NOCs were being granted to developers under Development Control and Promotion Regulation or DCPR 33(12)(B) to allegedly rehabilitate bogus individuals. According to a senior civic official, the policy was being exploited in a manner where encroachments on footpaths were removed to benefit builders rather than to facilitate road widening for the larger good of citizens. A civic official in the know of the revisions proposed in the policy told HT that under the proposed amended framework, all permissions will now be issued by assistant commissioners with a system generated NOC for road widening, while detailed data on affected structures and road bottlenecks will be integrated into an AutoDCR-linked GIS platform. "This will allow real-time public visibility into which structures have been cleared and which roads have actually been widened," said the civic official. The scheme allowed developers to remove encroachments on narrow roads in exchange for additional FSI, provided the project affected people (PAPs) residing in structures built before 1969 or protected up to 2000 were rehabilitated within the same ward. However, internal assessments revealed that the policy's objective of road widening was being routinely hijacked. Joshi's report threw light on how some developers, in collusion with ward officials, had manipulated the scheme to secure benefits for ineligible and bogus individuals while genuine PAPs had been left out. A civic official elucidated: "When structures were demolished by a ward, it was the developer's responsibility to rehabilitate the PAPs in exchange for additional FSI. We didn't have a database which led to an issue of accountability. The policy was perfect but it did not make room for accountability." Joshi, in her note, had directed the island city's wards to submit specific details, including the number of structures surveyed under the scheme, the issuance of relevant documents, the status of demolition notices and data on how many PAPs had been successfully relocated. Departments were also required to submit photographic evidence of the sites, with the images accompanied by accurate geolocation data to facilitate verification. The newly proposed amendments by BMC's estate department in consultation with the building proposals department will soon be tabled before Gagrani for clearance....