Mumbai, June 13
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will begin demolishing the illegal flats at Campa Cola Compound from June 17 after a deadline set by the Supreme Court for its inhabitants to vacate the premises expired on Thursday.

None of the residents of the illegal flats have so far vacated the premises though many of them shifted their furniture to other locations. “We have not received the keys of the illegal flats from any of the residents,” a BMC official said.

However, the civic body has decided to go by the rules and begin the demolition process from June 17. “We are issuing notices to the residents of the unauthorised flats under Section 488 of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Act,” the civic official said.

The notices will go out from this weekend. Under the rules, the civic body can begin demolition after 24 hours of giving a notice.

As the first step, civic officials will shut off utilities such as water, power and gas lines to the illegal flats. Subsequently, they will demolish the interior walls of the flats and the entire illegal floors would be pulled down in the last stage. The BMC has earmarked Rs 2.2 crore for the demolition job which will be recovered from the residents of the compound.

Officials say they have sought the support of the police to arrest those preventing the demolition of the flats for contempt of court.

On the other hand, the residents have sent a letter to the BMC listing several conditions in order to vacate their flats. They have demanded that “all illegal constructions in the city of Mumbai and Maharashtra will be demolished and no building will be regularised by nefarious means.”

The residents have also demanded that the BMC should refund them the stamp duty, property tax and other levies collected over the last 25 years.