New Mumbai museum may house Singhania jade collection
A 20k sq ft museum possibly housing the Singhania family's jade collection is set to open to the public in Mumbai. Maintained by the Singhania family, the museum will offer panoramic views of the city, and may house an art gallery and priceless artefacts. Located on floors 15 to 18 of a tower building that has been subject to complaints regarding concessions, the museum is expected to open next month once it is granted an Occupational Certificate by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

Mumbai: A museum will soon be thrown open to the public inside a 37-storey skyscraper at Breach Candy, which will also be the new residence of the Singhanias of Raymond. The museum may house the Singhania family's exquisite jade collection and other priceless artefacts, it is learnt.The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is expected to grant an Occupation Certificate to the tower by next month after its inspection team certified that the owner had made four floors "uninhabitable".In 2012, the BMC stopped construction following a complaint that concessions allowed by the then municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak were excessive and could be misused. The developer has now punctured the slabs on the 5th and 10th floors and completely sealed the 20th and 25th floors. "The civic team has verified that these four floors have been rendered unusable. The building can now be occupied," officials told TOI on Wednesday. A Raymond spokesperson did not respond to an email query from this newspaper.The civic law department has finalised a draft agreement to be signed with the Singhanias to start a public museum spread over 20,000 sq ft inside the tower. Civic sources said the museum will be located on the upper stilt level and between floors 15 to 18. "A separate elevator will take citizens on the upper floors, which will offer a panoramic view of the city," they said.A trust comprising civic officials and the Singhanias will be formed to run the museum. The majority on the trust will be held by the BMC. "The museum will be maintained by the family. However, the timing, dates and ticket pricing will be decided by the trust," said officials. "The BMC may insist that part of the museum be utilised for an art gallery, which can display paintings of budding artists in the city," they added.When the Singhanias submitted building plans in the last decade, they had sought permission for a private museum. This area within the tower was permitted free of floor space index (FSI)__FSI determines how much can be built on a plot. But the state urban development department last year insisted that the museum cannot be "private" but must be thrown open to citizens. The Singhanias later agreed to this condition.Last year, the department wrote to civic chief Ajoy Mehta, stating that the fire refuge areas were excessively large and asked him to take a decision on it.Raymond claimed the building's plans were sanctioned by the BMC and the large refuge areas were sought by the then fire brigade chief; the company was not to be blamed for it.Work on the one-acre property called JK House was stopped by the then civic commissioner Subodh Kumar.A BMC report found that excessive concessions granted to the developer caused a "mammoth" construction of 27,400 sq m against a floor space index of 2,570 sq m. "The total construction area is more than ten times the FSI computation," it said.