Of the 816 plots reserved under the DP -- which took effect on November 22 -- 650 of them fall in eight sectors hitherto unregulated by a Development Plan. These sectors include about 80,000 unauthorised constructions, of which about 3,000 buildings will have to be razed so that the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) can acquire land to execute the new Development Plan. This amounts to 80 per cent of the total reservations in the DP. With the TMC's path thus peppered with landmines, a large portion of the DP is likely to remain on the drawing board.

The eight sectors, of the 11 that encompass the Thane municipal limits,include areas like Wagle Estate, Carvalho Nagar, Indira Nagar, Kalwa and Mumbra, which are notorious for their illegal structures. With all of them falling under the jurisdiction of the erstwhile Gram Panchayat before they were coopted under the TMC in October 1982, local politicians and developers had a free rein. Unauthorised constructions thus mushroomed during the construction boom of the 80s and continued into the early 90s. The biggest hurdle to demolishing them today is the powerful corporator-builder lobby, which has local politics in a virtual vice-grip.

The buildings, which stand cheek by jowl, are located in dense clusters; many of them have already been deemed dangerous by the civic authorities while several have begun to sink but the residents have consistently refused to budge.

Municipal Commissioner T S Chandrashekhar admits that tackling these areas to implement the DP ``will not be easy''. Therefore, he says, the remaining three sectors, which encompass the city limits, will be taregetedfirst. Not that it will be easy. Most of the reserved plots here too are occupied by private land owners. Says Assistant Director, Town Planner, A G Girkar: ``Wherever there are existing structures in areas marked as reservations, the owners will have to comply under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966, and hand over their plots. The corporation will offer Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to these private parties so that their property can be acquired.

The primary work for surveying all the reserved sites and their existing status is being done by a civic committee headed by the Assistant Director, Town Planning, A G Girkar, with the assistance of the ward officers in the respective sectors. Initially, the survey would cover only those areas which have been sanctioned under the DP, leaving out 256 modifications that are still open for objections and suggestions and are yet to be approved. Says Girkar: ``These modifications will be surveyed subsequently, after its approval as part of theDP.''

Civic sources explain that implementing the DP in the three sectors, which coincide with the city limits will be easier as these areas fell under the jurisdiction of the erstwhile Thane Municipal Council, which was governed by the Development Plan of 1973. Though the council was upgraged to corporation status in 1982, there has been no DP till the current one, since the 10-year span of the earlier one expired.

The final draft of the current DP, which was submitted in February 1996, was cleared by the Narayan Rane government only in September 1999, just before it relinquished power. Apart from the 816 plots reserved, there are 256 others, which are yet to receive the state government's sanction. Objections and suggestions have been invited from the public by December 3.

Salient features
- Ring rail (Kopri-Majiwade-Balkum-Manpada-Panchpakhadi-Kopri)
- Water park at Moghur Pada on Ghodbunder Road
)- Sainik School at Kavesar Village
- Four parking areas within city limits, two ofthem in the station area, near the post office
- Two truck terminals, one at Kharigaon near Kalwa and one at Shilgaon on Panvel road
- Two more garbage dumping grounds, besides the Kopri ground, at Owle and Shilphata
- Nine more hospitals