After three months of waiting, residents of Purnima Building, Sanghani Lane see a ray of hope.

The BMC has finally given Excel Enterprise permission to demolish and reconstruct the building. It had been reported how the building reconstruction had been stopped as the BMC had denied permission to the builder to repair the building because of insufficient recreational grounds (metro Jan 27-Feb 1, 2004).

Says Virendra Vora, proprietor of Excel Enterprise and the builder and developer of Purnima Building, I am delighted that I have finally got permission. I will raze the building in 20 days and in six months the new building will be ready and handed over to the residents.

The builder, however, has not managed to get extra FSI and can reconstruct only the existing three floors. Additional FSI will mean a further delay, so I will look into that later, says Vora.

Hitesh Shah, resident of Purnima Building, who is currently living in a rented flat in Paresh Bhuvan Building, says, The permission is a relief. Till now, we were clueless about whether we would get flats or not. The building will be ready in a years time.

Fortunately, we are living at my sisters place so there is no worrying about rent. But we are pleased that the permission has been granted, says Rasila Bhadra who is currently living in Bhanushali Wadi.

rachana@mid-day.com