Breach Candy Hosp or BMC? Tussle erupts over reclaimed land
A land dispute in Mumbai arises as Breach Candy Hospital claims a portion of reclaimed land for parking, while BMC asserts ownership for public use.
MUMBAI: A tug-of-war has begun over a patch of reclaimed land – reclaimed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for its Coastal Road project, and claimed by Breach Candy Hospital on the basis of an old but still-valid lease. It’s a plot that is gaining new twists and turns.

In all, about 6,000 square metres of land reclaimed by the BMC on the west coast of the city is currently in contention. The hospital has laid claim to about 2,300 sq m as they had leased it decades ago. They say they want to use it for a parking lot. The remainder belongs to the adjacent, private Breach Candy Club, which is still measuring its plot and has not put in a claim yet.
Two questions could now determine the outcome of the hospital’s claim: Does the fact that the BMC funded the reclamation override any competing claim, making the BMC its current owner? The second is a question that could set a precedent: Given that the BMC guaranteed the Union environment ministry that all reclaimed land not used for the actual Coastal Road would be used for green public spaces only – could a parking lot be permitted?
These are some of the questions that will now end up on the desks of the state revenue department, as an inevitable tussle unfolds over what is certainly Mumbai’s most prized asset: new land.
What do the various existing claims look like, as things stand? According to an official from the Mumbai City District Collectors Survey and Land Records Department, “A few months ago, Breach Candy Hospital conducted measurements of their land as a portion of it was reclaimed by the BMC for the Coastal Road. They then came to us claiming it as rightfully theirs, based on a lease agreement. At the same time, the BMC has asked us to hand over the land to them, as they are the ones who spent the money to reclaim it. Hence the revenue department will have to make the decision.”
When the collector informed the BMC of the rival claim, its coastal road department began to build a boundary wall around the land reclaimed near the hospital.
Hospital CEO Dr Anirudh Kohli confirmed that the institute is in fact laying claim to the land, on the basis of the lease. “The portion was unreclaimed, as it went under water during high tide. Now that the BMC has reclaimed it, the hospital plans to build a parking lot on the plot, as that would help decongest the area and ease the parking woes of our patients,” Dr Kohli said. “At the edge of the plot, we plan to add trees and solar panels.”
Activist Zoru Bhathena, meanwhile, has begun a signature drive against the idea of using the land for a parking lot instead of a green space. “In 2016, when the BMC applied to the Union environment ministry for permission to reclaim the land, its application was very clear that the areas reclaimed would be used to generate green space for the benefit of the entire population,” Bhathena told HT. “When the ministry granted permission in 2017, it did so on the understanding that the reclamation was only for public use – not for commercial or residential use. It is the BMC’s statutory responsibility to fully protect the open spaces.”
Bhathena claimed he has evidence that the hospital has already utilised the FSI from the “unreclaimed land” for part of its new 11-storey wing, opened in 2024. He plans to submit the letter to the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA), collector and the BMC on Friday. As of Thursday night, he had 40 signatures.

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