State to set up company for CRZ slum redevelopment

The state government is thinking of setting up a company to undertake redevelopment of over 146 slum clusters under the coastal regulator zone II in the city.

The state government is thinking of setting up a company to undertake redevelopment of over 146 slum clusters under the coastal regulator zone II in the city.

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The Centre notified the new coastal regulatory zone norms last week, which allows a higher floor space index (FSI) of up to 2.5 (subject to change) for redevelopment of shanties. FSI is the ratio of the permissible built-up area to the size of the plot. It indicates how high a building can be constructed.

Minister of state for housing, Sachin Ahir, said, “We are likely to set up a special purpose public vehicle to be headed by a bureaucrat to undertake this redevelopment. We want it to be more proactive instead of waiting for a proposal like SRA does.”

The state government or Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (Mhada) may provide the initial seed money for the company. In its current state, neither the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) nor Mhada is equipped to handle redevelopment on this scale. Ahir admitted as much.

The state’s housing department is likely to thrash out such issues and put up a file before chief minister Prithviraj Chavan for clearance soon.

Ahir said the government would put up land cost as investment from its side in the project. “If the land cost is less then we will look at other options like our share of FSI or some other investment. But, in exchange we are looking at only built-up area from developers,” he added.