MHADA to empanel ‘premium’ builders for redevelopment

R B Mitkar, who heads MHADA’s redevelopment cell, said, “There are at least two big redevelopment projects that we are immediately taking up — Tagore Nagar at Vikhroli and Motilal Nagar at Goregaon. Companies registered in the premium list will be able to bid for the two projects.”

Tagore Nagar is spread over an area of 2.2 lakh s m, while Motilal Nagar is more than 5 lakh sq m.

MHADA has 56 colonies on 104 plots across the city spread over 1,500 hectares. Until now, residents of cooperative housing societies of MHADA were selecting developers for redevelopment independently, with a no-objection certificate from the housing authority. However, now MHADA expects more redevelopment projects to come its way with the state government having revised rules and incentivised residents to approach the housing authority with proposals by granting them an additional 15 per cent carpet area.

The premium category was added as an afterthought to MHADA’s efforts to empanel builders for redevelopment projects of its old colonies, after several of the city’s large builders showed interest in applying for empanelment. Earlier, MHADA had decided to enlist builders in two categories — one for projects less than 20,000 sq m and a second for works more than 20,000 sq m.

A MHADA official had earlier said that developers such as Kohinoor Constructions, Mantri Realty, Mayfair Housing and Keystone Realtors have evinced interest in being empanelled.

As per norms set by MHADA, to be empanelled in the premium category, developers will need to have an overall experience in redevelopment projects of at least 10 years. Specifically, they should have executed works amounting to 2.50 lakh sq m in built up area over the last five years, including at least one project of 1 lakh sq m in area.

Further, developers should have constructed at least five buildings of 22 floors each as part of redevelopment projects. To show financial stability and hence the ability to complete MHADA’s redevelopment projects, the annual turnover of builders in the premium category will have to be at least Rs 250 crore for the past five years with the minimum cash on hand at any point of time being above Rs 50 crore.

“We decided to introduce the premium category for enlisting developers after discussions with known builders who had attended the pre-bid meeting on March 5. Around 25-30 developers attended the meeting,” Mitkar said.

manasi.phadke@expressindia.com