50% of MMRDA Rental Housing to be Transit Tenements
The Maharashtra state government has approved the proposal of using 50% of rental flats built by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) as transit settlements for people belonging to cessed and dilapidated buildings.
MMRDA will be constructing a total of 23,000 apartment units for rental purposes in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and it is expected to obtain about 7,400 units by the end of 2013. Out of these, 2,250 are in Thane, 4,500 are in Panvel and the remaining in Mira-Bhayandar. The development authority however said that all the 23,000 flats will be constructed only in MMR and not in Mumbai proper due to the prohibitive cost of land in Mumbai.
The flats reserved as transit tenements for residents of dilapidated buildings will be leased out to various other municipal councils and corporations at a price of Rs. 1 per sq-mt for 30 years. The civic bodies can decide the rent for these flats and the rents will be nominal. The rents collected will be used for maintaining the buildings. The residents will be allowed to stay in these flats till their original buildings are redeveloped or if they find other accommodations.
Dilapidated buildings in Mumbai
In recent years, Mumbai has seen many building collapses. Most of these buildings involved old cessed and dilapidated buildings, built earlier than 1940. Most of the dilapidated buildings owned by private owners are in this condition owing to the negligence of the land owners. The BMC has identified about 960 old dilapidated buildings in Mumbai while the MMRDA has identified 66 in Mira-Bhayandar and 1,100 dilapidated buildings in Thane. Approximately 90 families have already been offered rental accommodation in Thane. However, these families haven’t moved in yet, as they are afraid of losing their homes.
The Mumbai civic authority is currently looking at various options for redeveloping the dilapidated buildings, such as offering additional FSI to developers. It is also considering bringing about few amendments in redevelopment rules.
