State govt to review cluster revamp policy

The state plans to review its cluster redevelopment policy, aimed at transforming the island city, which is home to 16,000 old, cessed buildings.

The state plans to review its cluster redevelopment policy, aimed at transforming the island city, which is home to 16,000 old, cessed buildings.

HT Image

The current policy, formulated in 2009 to promote the holistic development of an area, is being seen as unsustainable and non-transparent.

The policy offers developers floor space index of 4 and more to redevelop a minimum of one acre. They get this incentive to rehabilitate residents of the plot being redeveloped in 300-sq-ft homes. “The state will initiate a consultative process to review the cluster redevelopment policy since it seems unviable,” said a bureaucrat, requesting anonymity.

The state has cleared three cluster redevelopment proposals in central Mumbai. It is now likely to go slow on the 26 other proposals in the pipeline.

“The cluster redevelopment policy will have to be reconsidered,” chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had said on Tuesday. “We need to make the processes transparent.”

Chavan was speaking in the context of the overall redevelopment policies in Mumbai, which revolve around bartering FSI in exchange for rehabilitating tenants.