ASPIRING home buyers who have pinned their hopes on next years draw of lots by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) may have to wait for two years to get possession of the homes. In the course of its annual lottery on Thursday,senior MHADA officials announced that they would be releasing a total of 4,272 houses in Virar and Mumbai around this time next year. Of this,a total of 1,836 low income group (LIG) and 850 middle income group (MIG) houses are under construction in Virar. Of the homes that will be available in Mumbai the majority,that is 1,592,are under construction in Powai while the remaining are scattered across Charkop,Kalina,Malvani,Mulund and Kurla. However,not even one of these houses will be ready until March 2014. We had planned to add another 84 apartments at Pratiksha Nagar in Sion but those will take even longer to complete. As for the remaining,while the lottery will be held next year,we will be able to finish the construction and hand them over only after March 2014, said a senior MHADA officer. While the housing board has traditionally been selling only ready for possession houses,beginning last year a handful of the projects have been under-construction ones. Incidentally,MHADA is yet to hand over many of the houses sold in last years lottery. In fact,it recently decided to raise the prices of their HIG (high income group) apartments at Powai by Rs 15 lakh and for the LIG Malvani houses at by Rs 2.5 lakh a year after the buyers were handed over their provisional offer letters and had paid the original cost of the houses. The housing board is now concentrating on roping in developers to construct public houses on a portion of their plots through Joint Venture scheme,approved by the Chief Minister recently. Private landowners willing to transfer the ownership of their land with a minimum area of 2,000 sq m to MHADA will be allowed to carry out construction up to 1.75 FSI and use 0.75 FSI for constructing public houses. MHADA vice-president Satish Gavai said it is necessary to transfer the land in MHADAs name as existing rules dont allow a 2.5 FSI on private plots. Once the developer transfers the land,MHADA will lease the land back to the developer for 99 years. We have got a good response for the scheme. The Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry has committed to generating 25,000 houses in the near future in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, said Gavai.
