Crumbling MLA hostel in south Mumbai to be vacated in six weeks

The decision of vacating the hostel immediately was taken after the ceiling of a room accommodating an NCP MLA fell during the monsoon session last month.

Maharashtra legislature has decided to vacate the crumbling Manora MLA hostel in south Mumbai by November 1. The administration has found alternative accommodations for the legislators at a complex constructed by public works department in Ghatkopar.

Manora hostel (HT File)

The decision was made at meeting chaired by the chairman of the legislative council Ramraje Nimbalkar, and attended by assembly speaker Haribhau Bagade, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and other ministers and officials. The decision of shifting the MLAs to the buildings in Ghatkopar in the eastern suburbs was taken after the government’s attempt to rent out flats to the MLAs in south Mumbai failed. The legislators living at Manora hostel will soon be given the vacation notices. About 140 legislators from various parties occupy two flats each at the Manora hostel.

The decision of vacating the hostel immediately was taken after the ceiling of a room accommodating an NCP MLA fell during the monsoon session last month. The government and state legislature has planned the reconstruction of the Manora hostel with the more than 750 flats measuring 350 and 650 sqfts. The reconstruction will be done by the National Building Construction Corporation Limited (NBCC), a public sector undertaking of the Centre, with an estimated cost of Rs700 crore.

“During the meetings held on Tuesday, concerns were also raised over the deterioration of the Manora hostel towers in just 22 years of their construction,” said an official from the PWD.