Kamathipura redevelopment to get cabinet nod soon

Nagpur: The state government on Tuesday announced plans to redevelop Kamathipura, the settlement spread over 36 acres in South Mumbai, through a cluster redevelopment scheme

Nagpur: The state government on Tuesday announced plans to redevelop Kamathipura, the settlement spread over 36 acres in South Mumbai, through a cluster redevelopment scheme. The state’s apex housing body Mhada has been appointed as the nodal agency, and the proposal is expected to be brought before the cabinet soon.

HT Image

Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds charge of the housing department, said that Mhada had been appointed as a special purpose authority for the redevelopment under Development Control Rule 33 (9). “I held a meeting on the Kamathipura redevelopment on November 1 and have cleared the proposal,” he said. “We are getting cooperation from the tenants, landlords and elected representatives from Kamathipura. The project will soon take off.”

Mumbadevi MLA Amin Patel said that the settlement, which came into existence in 1795, houses 8,328 tenements in the buildings owned by 800 private landlords. “The settlement of the Kamathi workers who built iconic buildings like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the Bombay high court and Jyotiba Phule Market is in bad shape,” he said. “People live in tenements measuring 60 to 100 square feet. The redevelopment needs to be undertaken urgently.”

Kamathipura has 943 cessed buildings, including 180 which are in a dangerous state. It has 349 non-cessed buildings, of which 123 are beyond repair.

Fadnavis said the government would also consider the feasibility of cluster redevelopment of dilapidated and cessed buildings in Umarkhadi in South Mumbai. The feasibility of redeveloping 26 buildings in MHB colony in Borivali is also being discussed.