Flats for rent as low as `800 in Thane under housing scheme

Nearly 1,500 flats measuring 160 sq ft each will soon be available for the low and middle-income group in Thane’s Panchpakhadi locality for a monthly rent of between Rs 800-Rs 1,500.

Nearly 1,500 flats measuring 160 sq ft each will soon be available for the low and middle-income group in Thane’s Panchpakhadi locality for a monthly rent of between Rs 800-Rs 1,500.

These flats are part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (MM-RDA) rental housing scheme, which was launched amid much fanfare four years back.

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They have been been constructed by the Dosti Group.

The present rent for a one-bedroom-hall-kitchen flat in the area is between Rs 8,000-10,000.

“We will be getting our first set of rental houses by June,” metropolitan commissioner Rahul Asthana said. “The modalities on how we will distribute these houses are still being worked out,” he added.

There are plans to sell some of these flats as affordable houses to the local urban bodies or the police department, for housing their employees, it is learnt.

When the scheme was launched in 2008, the state declared that it would build 5 lakh rental houses in five years with the help of private builders, who would be given extra FSI for commercial exploitation.