Resolve issues, expedite BDD chawls redevelopment plan, says Maharashta CM

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took a review of the redevelopment of Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) chawls at Worli, NM Joshi Marg and Naigaon and directed

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took a review of the redevelopment of Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) chawls at Worli, NM Joshi Marg and Naigaon and directed officials to resolve the issues over which the revamp projects are stuck for over three years.

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In a meeting held at his official residence, Varsha, Thackeray asked state housing department to hold a special camp to look at the eligibility and documents of the 9,600 tenants of the BDD chawl in Worli. He also directed officials to iron out the rehabilitation process for 2,500 tenants of NM Joshi Marg’s BDD Chawl and 3,300 tenants of the chawl at Naigaon.

State tourism minister and Worli MLA, Aaditya Thackeray, who was present in the meeting tweeted, “Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed authorities to provide houses to the common man and remove all obstacles. He has asked authorities to carry out redevelopment on time, and a review of it must be done every few days.”

The tenants at the two locations had refused to vacate their homes resulting in Larsen and Toubro, which had won the ₹2,800 crore contract in 2017 for the Naigaon project, pulling out of the project citing cost escalations after zero progress.

A senior housing department official said that the “complexity” and “scale” of the project has delayed take-off of the revamp. “Some of the occupants want the redevelopment under 33(5) (which is for the redevelopment of Mhada properties) and not under 33 (9) (cluster redevelopment). Besides that, eligibility survey is an issue, tenants are seeking more area, parking, which changes the project design. Some have also demanded more corpus fund. All these issues have to be resolved in a time-bound manner,” an official said requesting anonymity.