Many housing problems,some solutions,ideas and proposals

MHADA has expressed a willingness to redevelop Sector 5 of Dharavi and BDD chawls on its own,and generate more than 15,000 affordable houses in the heart of the city. It has also proposed another 5,000 houses would be generated in Thane through joint ventures on private land. The government has preferred not to act on any of the proposals so far.
The Dharavi chapter is not closed yet. Within the next two months,we will take a decision on redeveloping not only Sector 5 through MHADA but also the remaining four sectors through private developers. As for BDD chawl redevelopment,there are complications that come with brownfield projects,like tenants’ consent,transit camps,demand for bigger homes and a sizeable corpus which MHADA is not in a position to offer the tenants. So it is best that instead of redeveloping the chawls on its own,MHADA plays the role of a nodal agency while a private developer will execute the project and hand over a certain number of affordable houses to MHADA. In case of Thane,we have got many offers for joint ventures but it will have to wait until the government issues a notification.

Till date,most government policies for augmenting housing stock have ended up granting more FSI to builders. This has had no impact on the increasing prices and size of houses built by private developers.
It is not possible for the government to regulate the pricing of flats in Mumbai due to the varying land values. But just last week,the Cabinet made it mandatory for builders with projects over 2,000 sq m to set aside 25 per cent of the total construction for low- and middle-income flats with area 300 sq ft to 600 sq ft. We are also looking at creating townships outside Mumbai by offering private land owners a higher FSI if they are willing to enter into joint ventures for creating homes for MHADA.

Besides the ever-burgeoning sizing and pricing,the recent trend of 80 to 100 per cent notional loading (super-built up) has been a cause of great concern for home-buyers.
To counter this problem,we had amended the carpet area rule in the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act (MOFA). Unfortunately it is not being enforced. We plan to set up a cell under a person at deputy secretary level to implement the rule. We will issue orders to all municipal corporations asking them to approve building plans on carpet-area instead of built-up-area basis. This would be applicable to stamp duty registration offices where the agreement that is to be registered would clearly mention the carpet area of the flat which should not include balconies,decks and other such amenities.

There has been talk about bringing in the real estate regulatory commission bill for over two years now. Is the government buckling under pressure from the real estate lobby?
Yes,there has been pressure from developers but we will be going ahead with the commission. It has only been six months for me personally in this office. The bill has already been sent to the law and judiciary department and will be brought before the legislature for its approval at the earliest.