Tweak RAY to meet housing shortage: State

The Urban Development and Housing departments of the state government said it would be necessary to tweak the scheme to make it be applicable in Mumbai. Under the scheme,the Centre will assist with 50 per cent of the cost of slum redevelopment.

“We would like to continue using incentive FSI as a tool for slum rehabilitation schemes. We have asked the government to permit the subsidy from the Centre to be given to the planning body for infrastructure development that becomes necessary owing to increased FSI,” said Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar. “The Centre has been receptive to the idea,” he added.

Kumar admitted that slum rehousing remains one of the biggest challenges in Mumbai,stating that 53 per cent of the population resides in informal settlements based on the provisional data from the latest Census.

He said there is a need to unlock the value of the land by using differential FSI. “Uniformly low FSI means low FSI per capita,which means you are bound to have slums,” he said,adding that the idea of differential FSI will be dealt with in the new Development Plan.