MHADA Redevelopment Funds Increases Twofold

The Ministry of State for housing on Wednesday announced a Rs. 100 crore increase in funds to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) for repair and redevelopment of dilapidated cessed buildings in Mumbai. The announcement was made in the Legislative Council that the funds had been increased to Rs. 200 crores from the existing Rs. 100 crores.

There are currently about 14,972 cessed buildings in Mumbai. The Mumbai buildings repairs and reconstruction board (MBRRB) of MHADA is responsible for carrying out structural repairs and reconstruction of these old cessed buildings. Chief minister, Prithviraj Chauvan had stated that the repair board currently received Rs. 10 crore from MHADA, Rs. 40 crore from the state and Rs. 50 crore from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The announcement came in the wake of an issue of fund crunch being raised by Shiv Sena legislator Ramdas Kadam. He had said that Rs. 100 crore for the repair board would be insufficient for redevelopment. Also, according to a recent study by the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit, less than 8% of the total cessed buildings had been redeveloped since 1999.

The state government had realized that the pace of redevelopment of cessed buildings was slow and it could be increased by involving landlords/tenants/private developers. With this in view, the Maharashtra government introduced a policy of giving floor space index (FSI) 2.00 for redevelopment of cessed buildings under Development Control Regulations. Amendments to the policy also gave an FSI up to 4 for redeveloping building clusters in a minimum area of one acre and rehabilitation of existing tenants/occupiers.

The state minister for housing however stated that the amendments made to the clauses had not received much response. He said that the state had received only 10 proposals since the amendment was made.

The increase in funds will help MBRRB in redeveloping more cessed buildings in the city.