Uh-oh, Rani Mukherji’s ambitious plan to expand her Juhu bungalow appears to have come a cropper with first the actress’ neighbours, then environmentalists, and finally the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) taking objection to the construction activity going on there and stopping all work.

Civic sources say the construction work on Rani’s KrishnaRam bungalow in the tony neighbourhood of Juhu has come to a total half after the BMC issued the actress a stop-work notice. This comes in the wake of civic officials being denied permission to enter the premises earlier and inspect the work following strong complaints about irregularities in the construction by the neighbours.

The officials were sent away after being told that amended plans for the construction had been submitted to the BMC’s Building Proposal Department and were being carried out accordingly. However, it was reportedly discovered that the amended plans had not yet been approved and Rani had yet gone ahead with the construction. So, the stop-work notice was issued. Civic sources added that unless the plans are approved now, the actress cannot resume work on the bungalow.

A PR person for the actress confirmed the development and said while construction work was stopped, Rani has replied to the BMC’s notice too. The bone of contention in this neighbourhood squabble appears to be that Rani has not obtained the critical Coastal Zone Regulation No-Objection Certificate from the BMC though her bungalow falls within 500 metres of the coast in which construction and development is closely regulated as per guidelines issued in the Environment Protection Act (1986) of India.

But the BMC denies there were any CRZ violations in Rani’s construction work. So if the neighbours and environmentalists find their complaints falling flat, why is it that the BMC stopped work on Rani Mukherji’s bungalow? Is it that egos have been bruised somewhere high-up in the BMC? Or the civic administration is taking no chances after having burned its fingers with TV comedian and actor Kapil Sharma’s alleged illegal construction work on his Goregaon bungalow?