Five more developers in queue for cluster redevelopment

These are besides the three that have been vetted by the committee — the Pimpalwadi project at Girgaum by Shreepati Developers,Nish Developers’ project at Parel and Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust’s 18-acre project at Bhendi Bazaar.

If all these proposals are cleared,prime pockets of real estate,totalling 60 acres,will be thrown open to developers. Over 9,000 middle and lower middle class families will be shifted to swanky high-rises from their generations-old homes. A huge portion of the freed-up land,left after demolishing the old structures,will then be used for constructing 40 to 60-storey towers,which the developers can sell in the open market to make their profit.

For instance,the project by Neelkamal Realtors will involve clearing small-time commercial establishments from a plum 14-acre plot overlooking the Mahalaxmi Racecourse and constructing 20-storey high residential and commercial towers as the sale component of the project.

The state urban development department is the final authority for approving projects under the new cluster redevelopment policy that allows developers to exploit four times the area of a plot in the city as long as they take up reconstruction of buildings in a minimum area of one acre (4000 sq m) in the island city.

However,besides the issue of the strain on infrastructure,the cluster policy has been criticised for the height allowed for buildings. In most other projects like the slum rehabilitation projects,the height of such buildings is capped at 14 storeys. “This is one lacunae in the cluster policy. We know that most of the below-poverty line and low-income families,who will be part of such projects,cannot afford the maintenance of towers as high as 20 storeys. The maintenance cost of elevators in towers alone comes to Rs 2,500 per month,” said TC Benjamin,principal secretary of state urban development department.

He said the department had recently issued orders in case of redevelopment of mill land chawls,stating that the developer should deposit Rs 1 lakh per tenement as corpus for maintaining the new building for 15 years. “We will soon issue similar orders for all developers constructing towers for existing tenants under the cluster policy.”

New proposals Shreepati Developers
Location: Saat Pansare Chawl & Parsi Wadi at NM Joshi Marg,Lower Parel
Plot area: 10,798 sq m
Existing structures: 11 ground to 4-storey structures + 30 shanties
Proposed structures: Three 20-storey towers for rehab,One 40-storey tower for sale
Existing tenants: 357
Location: Krishna Nagar,Parel
Plot area: 20,152 sq m
Existing structures: 50 three to four-storey structures
Proposed structures: Six 27-storey towers for rehab,three 45-storey towers for sale
Existing tenants: 1,604 families

HEM Bhattad Developers
Location: Private land near Tokersy Jivraj Road,Sewri
Plot area: 52,480 sq m
Existing structures: 35 ground to 2-storey structures + 400 shanties
Proposed structures: Four 21-storey towers for rehab,One 45 and one 60-storey tower for sale
Existing tenants: 1,039 families

Ratansi Architects
Location: Botawala Chawl,Masgaon
Plot area: 4,721 sq m
Existing structures: 10 two-storey structures
Proposed structures: Three 20-storey towers for rehab,One 53-storey tower for sale
Existing tenants: 422 families

Neelkamal Realtors (DB Realty group)
Location: Turf Estate,Mahalaxmi
Plot area: 57,265 sq m
Existing structures: Rows of single-storey commercial structures
Proposed structures: One 15-storey commercial tower with five levels of podium for rehab,One 22-storey residential tower,one 5-level podium + 15-storey commercial tower for sale
Existing tenants: 135