To ensure that the city has affordable housing, the state government had tried opening the block lands of the city. (File)THE STATE government on Tuesday issued a notification that it will form a committee to examine a proposal by a leading developer to construct one lakh homes on salt pan lands in Bhandup.
The proposal, aimed at taking the central government’s housing-for-all scheme forward, had entailed construction of one lakh affordable homes after salt pan lands were opened for construction in the Development Plan (DP) 2034.
According to the notification, the five-member committee will be headed by the upper chief secretary (finance) and senior bureaucrats, including those from the departments of revenue, housing, urban development and law.
The notification stated that the committee has to submit a report on whether the land should be handed over to the developer (in this case Shapoorji Pallonji) on the basis of premium or housing stock. The revenue department also directed that the committee should submit a report within two months (60 days).
A senior official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said the city has 5,378 acres of salt pan land, about 31 per cent of which is in residential and commercial belts. The remaining is impacted by the stringent Coastal Regulation Zone I norms, so, 1,617 acres is ready for construction after it was freed in DP-2034, the official added.
To ensure that the city has affordable housing, the state government had tried opening the block lands of the city, which are in the form of salt pans. After the changes were implemented in DP-2034, the government pushed proposals of construction on this land with the help of a public-private partnership model.
In the same model, developer Shapoorji Pallonji group had submitted a proposal of constructing one lakh homes on the land near Bhandup-Kanjurmarg area.
