BMC To Consider Residential Proposal For Alexandra Cinema Plot In Byculla

The 1,005-square-metre plot of the defunct Alexandra Cinema in the Byculla-Nagpada area of Mumbai may soon lose its long-standing cinema reservation and be converted for residential use. A proposal seeking to delete the reservation, based on recommendations from the Maharashtra Urban Development Department (UDD), is scheduled to come before the BMC Improvement Committee for approval on Wednesday.

Alexandra Cinema permanently shut down in 2007 and has remained unused for nearly two decades. Once known for screening Hollywood action films and English reruns, the old single-screen theatre struggled to remain viable amid changing viewing preferences, mounting financial pressures, and the rapid expansion of multiplexes across the city.

The prolonged closure has taken a heavy toll on the property, leaving the cinema building severely dilapidated and structurally deteriorated, raising questions over its future. Under the current Development Plan, the plot remains strictly reserved for cinema use. However, the BMC administration submitted a proposal to permit residential development on the plot following separate applications requesting a change in land use.

According to the proposal submitted to the Improvement Committee, Samir Gulamnabi Kazi, representing the Maharashtra State Wakf Board, approached then Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde on February 25, 2026, to seek deletion of the cinema reservation. Separately, the plot’s occupant, Rafiq Patel, submitted an application to the BMC Development Planning Department on March 27, 2026.

Following directions from the UDD, the BMC administration prepared its report and recommendations on April 6, 2026, with the prior approval of the Municipal Commissioner. Approval of the proposal by the Improvement Committee would pave the way for residential development on the strategically located plot, effectively ending its nearly century-old association with cinema use.