Redevelopment of 388 MHADA buildings inches forward, 20 proposals received

MHADA's redevelopment of 388 dilapidated buildings in South Mumbai is gaining traction, with ten proposals received, addressing long-standing safety concerns.

MUMBAI: Three months after MHADA stepped in to facilitate the development of 388 old and dilapidated buildings on its land in South Mumbai, the process is slowly gaining momentum.

Mumbai, India - January 06, 2023: A view of an old dilapidated building in Kamathipura. Kamathipura redevelopment project will cover an area of 27.59-acre in the island city of Mumbai. It has 943 cessed buildings and 349 non-cessed buildings along with other structures, in Mumbai, India, on Friday, January 06, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

The Maharashtra government says the housing authority had received ten proposals for redevelopment from various developers, and a no-objection certificate (NOC) has been granted to one of them. The government has received another ten proposals for cluster redevelopment of some of these buildings. This was stated by minister of state for housing Shambhuraj Desai in the state legislative assembly on Monday.

The redevelopment of these 388 buildings has been pending for years, owing to the lack of specific development control rules (DCR) for buildings that had already been redeveloped by MHADA once. Their redevelopment was stalled also because of their small plot size, which made the projects unviable for private developers.

To address this, the state government offered builders incentive FSI by adopting a new formula and working it into the Development Control Rules (DCR). This is DCR 33 (24), which provides rehabilitation for existing tenants (minimum 300 sq ft carpet area), and the use of incentive FSI for developers, often aimed at revitalising non-cessed, dilapidated structures.

DCR 33 (24) applies specifically to buildings owned by MHADA or the BMC, or cessed buildings that have lost their cessed status but are more than 30 years old or structurally unsafe.

On Monday, legislators expressed concern that the redevelopment of the 388 MHADA buildings was going nowhere and the 30,181 residents living in them were forced to live in unsafe conditions. The issue was raised by Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Manoj Jamsutkar, who demanded a time-bound programme and a special scheme for these buildings.

Minister of state for housing Shambhuraj Desai responded, saying developers have started showing interest in these projects ever since DCR 33 (24) was inserted in the Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) 2034, and all the benefits under DCR 33 (7) were made applicable to it.

“To make the redevelopment of the said 388 reconstructed buildings feasible, it has been approved that the developer shall transfer residential units to MHADA equivalent to 25% of the land value calculated as per the prevailing ASR (Annual Statement of Rates), in lieu of land ownership compensation,” he said.

He added that the additional tenements received through this arrangement can be distributed to tenants or residents currently residing in transit camps, based on the master list, and can be used for their permanent rehabilitation.

“We have granted several such benefits to developers as they were not coming forward. Now they have started showing interest as we have received proposals relating to ten redevelopment projects, of which an NOC was provided for one of them. We have received proposals for ten cluster redevelopment projects,” Desai told the assembly.

Legislators had raised concerns that the redevelopment of these 388 buildings had stalled. Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Rais Shaikh said the structures are dilapidated and MHADA was not releasing funds for repairs. “Developers are still not showing the desired interest. Even if the government has received a few proposals, not all the buildings will go in for reconstruction immediately and thus repair grants should be made available to them,” Shaikh said and demanded a meeting with the housing minister to resolve all the issues.