Mumbai: MMRDA plans housing projects with bus services

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) plans to construct affordable houses using relatively cheap land at some distance from railway stations.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) plans to construct affordable houses using relatively cheap land at some distance from railway stations. To offset the disadvantages of such locations - which could be about 10km from the stations - the MMRDA plans to have dedicated bus services connecting the housing projects with the stations. MMRDA is open to building these projects in various areas of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

UPS Madan, MMRDA commissioner, said, “We will study how the housing scheme remains affordable if it is constructed en bloc in interior areas, about 10 km away from the railway stations, where the cost of land is relatively low. In order to make it attractive, the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) can be provided to link it with railway stations, which will reduce travel time to a few minutes,” he said.

He said, “The plan has been formulated after considering various factors such as area and construction cost in relation to land cost, various income groups and affordability.”

If MMRDA finds that the plan is feasible, it may rope in other government agencies to construct the projects jointly.

The MMRDA’s plan is distinct from the state government’s plan to build 11 lakh homes in MMR by 2022 as per its draft housing policy released earlier this year.

The proposal to have housing projects with BRTS was put up by architect Shirish Patel on Monday, during a meeting of the Unified Mumbai Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMMTA).

The UMMTA is a government body tasked with bringing about coordination between various agencies involved in the planning and implementation of urban transport projects, besides integrated management of mass transport systems in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.