MHADA Awards Repaired Housing Society For Redevelopment
The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has allowed a developer to redevelop an already repaired housing society in Worli. The housing society has a development potential of Rs. 2,000 crore. There are now questions regarding the legitimacy of this redevelopment contract.
Shivshahi Cooperative Housing Society
The housing society in Worli falls under the coastal regulation zone (CRZ II). It is spread across a 3-acre plot and consists of 12 buildings with 192 flats. The housing society was allotted to economically weaker flat-buyers. The buildings were built in 1950 and were termed dilapidated. The redevelopment rights were then handed over to Wonder Value Realty which is a joint venture of HBS Realtors and IL&FS, in 2010. Each member of the housing society would get a carpet area of 935 sq.ft and Rs. 91 crore distributed among them according to the redevelopment plan. The buildings were also repainted after redevelopment. Yet, three years later MHADA has termed the buildings dilapidated.
Irregularities in the plan
Questions are being raised concerning this declaration. The Shivshahi Cooperative Housing Society plot falls under CRZ. Under the modified CRZ notification of 2011, buildings declared dilapidated are eligible for an FSI of 2.5 for redevelopment in the CRZ II areas. Other Mhada redevelopment projects in these areas are eligible only for an FSI of 1.59.
There was another irregularity in the documents submitted for redevelopment in 2010. Mhada said that the proposal for redevelopment in 2010 was received in August before the change in Mhada’s policy. The proposal was approved by the Mumbai board as per the earlier premium policy. However, the documents available show that the proposal was submitted in October 2010, months after the Mhada revised policy, where the premium option was scrapped. Moreover, the developer had also requested the Mumbai board’s permission to redevelop the housing society under provisions of development control regulations (DCR) section 33 (5) (with an FSI of 2.5).
Personal interests at heart
Mhada does not have a valid explanation to why the buildings were termed ‘dilapidate’ despite being repaired in 2010. With the irregularities found from MHADA’s end, it is suspected that MHADA has awarded the housing society for redevelopment within three years in order to procure a much higher FSI for the builder and in turn gain more space than it has received till now.
