No extra houses from redeveloped colonies

In the past 20 months since the state government increased the floor space index (FSI) to 2.5 for redevelopment of all existing MHADA colonies,the housing board has given the go-ahead to 409 such projects,comprising 10,000-odd families.

The draft notification on the increased FSI had made it mandatory on developers taking up the redevelopment to hand over a percentage of additional homes thus generated to MHADA. The move would have generated about two lakh affordable houses spread over 1,500 hectares of precious land,which the MHADA could then have sold through its annual lottery. However,when the final notification was issued in December 2008,the state urban development department tweaked the rules,giving developers the leeway to retain MHADA’s share of houses on payment of a paltry premium.

As a result,all that has come into MHADA’s kitty is Rs 300 crore,much of which will be ploughed back to the government. “We had hoped to get new housing stock when our existing colonies are redeveloped,but now what are we going to do with the money when we have no land left in Mumbai to construct homes?” said a senior MHADA official.

The prime plots going in for redevelopment include Bandra MIG Colony,Nehru Nagar in Kurla,DN Nagar,SVP Nagar and Azad Nagar in Andheri,JVPD in Juhu and Tilak Nagar in Chembur,all of which will now be milked by private developers for construction of luxury housing.

Over the years,MHADA’s useable land bank in Mumbai has been alarmingly reduced to two hectares just about enough to build another 1,000 houses. The housing board is now planning to purchase land all over the state from private land owners and will issue advertisements to this effect on August 15.

MHADA officials have ruled out buying of private land within Mumbai itself due to the aggressive pricing and the huge cash component demanded for land transactions in the city. The housing board will,instead,try to buy land in the peripheral areas. “We have made budgetary provisions to buy land from the market and are willing to offer rates slightly higher than the ready reckoner rates,” said MHADA vice-president Gautam Chatterjee.

He said the housing board was examining a proposal to buy part of a 131-acre land next to the Mithi river in Powai. “The land has certain problems regarding access but if we are able to acquire the plot,we can construct a sizeable number of homes on it.”