After a wait of 16 years, the original tenants of Patra Chawl, also known as Siddharth Nagar in Goregaon, are finally set to receive their long-promised homes with the completion of the project with 672 flats.
The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA)’s Mumbai board will soon hand over the keys to tenants. The exact date for the allotment is yet to be announced.
The redevelopment of the chawl was stalled after the original developer went bankrupt in 2017, leaving the project incomplete and hundreds of families in limbo.
As per the tripartite agreement between the developer, MHADA, and the tenants’ society, the rehab tenements were to be ready within 36 months after vacating the property in 2009. As many as 672 tenants vacated their homes between 2009 and 2010, with the developer providing rent payments until 2014-15. But, construction stopped in 2014-2015 when the work was 40 per cent complete. During this period, the developer also stopped rent payments of Rs 40,000.
After the developer’s bankruptcy, rent payments stopped, pushing the matter into legal battles, including proceedings in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The project suffered repeated setbacks before MHADA stepped in to revive it under the previous Maharashtra government led by then-chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. In 2018, MHADA cancelled the agreement with the developer over delay in the project, non-payment of rent, and cheating the Authority over the selling of land to other private developers.
A new contractor Relcon was appointed in February 2022 to complete the project. Relcon was the first contractor appointed to complete the project to the tune of Rs 320 crore approximately. MHADA also started paying rent of Rs 25,000 per house in 2018.
An official from MHADA stated that a lottery system, similar to that of the Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) Chawls, will determine the floor-wise allocation of the 672 flats to tenants.
‘Struggle wasn’t just financial but deeply personal’
Rajesh Dalvi, one of the beneficiaries and the president of the Goregaon Siddharth Nagar Co-operative Housing Society (Patra Chawl Tenants Association), reflected on the long and painful wait for their homes.
“When I vacated my house in the chawl, my son was just 16 years old. Today, he is a father himself. An entire phase of our lives has passed, and for many of us, it has been an emotionally difficult journey. My mother, too, passed away before she could see our new home. This struggle was not just financial but deeply personal, and almost every family here has a similar story.”
Dalvi criticised MHADA for failing to act sooner, forcing tenants to endure years of uncertainty. He pointed out that while MHADA has acquired 43 acres of land from the 47-acre redevelopment project, the tenants have not received many benefits.
“As per the initial agreement, MHADA was supposed to provide a Rs 25 crore corpus fund. Given the current market value, we have now demanded an increase in this amount. If MHADA can waive off Rs 1,200 crore for private builders involved in this project, why is there no relief for the original tenants who gave up their homes and waited for over a decade?” he asked.
Dalvi also urged MHADA to allocate some of the additional homes within their building to the housing society as a revenue source for maintenance, and the rest could be used for the Authority’s officials.
In addition to the original residents, MHADA has also taken steps to accommodate 302 lottery winners from the 2016 housing draw, who were supposed to receive homes from this redevelopment but faced delays due to the project’s stagnation. Last month, the Mumbai board issued payment letters to these winners, marking a crucial step toward their long-awaited home allotments.
MHADA spent Rs 18 crore to complete these lottery homes, alone which were left unfinished by the previous developer and obtained an Occupancy Certificate.
An official from MHADA stated that a lottery system, similar to that of the Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) Chawls, will determine the floor-wise allocation of the 672 flats to tenants. (File) 
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