‘Our main aim is to create affordable housing in city’

Ravindra Waikar, minister of state for housing, says one of most important aims of his government is to shift people living in dilapidated buildings to new houses

Ravindra Waikar, minister of state for housing, says one of most important aims of his government is to shift people living in dilapidated buildings to new houses. Waikar said he wants to speed up the existing cluster revamp scheme along with extending it to the suburbs.

In the past eight years, just two projects have taken off. Doesn’t this denote the Cluster Redevelopment Scheme has failed to achieve its objectives?

We are reviewing all the housing schemes. We have even appointed a committee comprising top bureaucrats to study and suggest ways to change the scheme.

Developers have been complaining the amended scheme has in fact made things difficult, like the sharing of surplus area with Mhada.

Our aim is to generate affordable houses. However, if the projects are not viable, then we will definitely address developers’ grievances.

Another grievance is that commercial tenants are not enthused owing to the lack of any incentives such as the extra space given to residents.

The value of any commercial structure increases exponentially after it has been revamped and hence we don’t support incentives for commercial tenants.

How does the state govt plan to boost cluster development?

Our main focus is revamping cessed structures and Mhada colonies, a majority of which are in the island city. The state government intends to act as a facilitator in this entire scheme.

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