THE MAHARASHTRA Housing and Area Development Authority’s (MHADA) Mumbai board chairman, Madhu Chauhan, has sought a review of the prices of the houses offered under the economically weaker section (EWS) and lower income group (LIG) categories by the state authority and sold under its lottery scheme, stating that it was beyond the reach of the common man. On November 5, MHADA had announced 1,384 homes for sale as part of its Mumbai board lottery this year. This included 44 flats in the city, priced at over Rs 1 crore. Maintaining that as a government body, MHADA should not fix high prices, Chauhan has sought that the prices be reduced by 10 per cent. “Common people were complaining about the prices of homes, so, I have sent a letter to MHADA president Uday Samant and Chief Executive Officer Milind Mhaiskar to reduce the prices of EWS and LIG homes by up to 10 per cent so that more people can afford MHADA homes,” he told The Indian Express. In the letter, Chauhan has said that as the lottery scheme is still underway, MHADA could review the prices and make changes. He added that MHADA had received 78 flats free of cost from the developers as part of its housing stock. Over 1,200 houses were built by the Mumbai board and the prices of these could be reviewed and reset to help people acquire some of these units, Chauhan said in the letter. “It is difficult to revise the rates now as we have received many applications and any change in the pricing will lead to a recalculation and pose problems for those who have applied already for these flats,” said a senior MHADA official. Another officer said: “Many winners of last year’s lottery had returned their flats saying that the prices were too high. In the 2017 lottery, MHADA had included 36 flats located in south Mumbai’s Parel division. Out of these 36, 28 winners had returned the flats to MHADA.” The lottery caters to 63 flats for EWS, 926 for LIG, 201 for middle income group (MIG) and 194 for the higher income group (HIG). In the HIG category, MHADA has included 44 flats in south Mumbai, priced between Rs 99 lakh to Rs 5.8 crore. Out of these, three flats in Cumballa Hill — measuring 884.79 sq ft, 983 sq ft and 859 sq ft — are the costliest flats ever offered by the MHADA. They are priced at Rs 5.13 crore, Rs 5.8 crore and Rs 4.99 crore, respectively.
