Redevelopment: The Only Option for Dilapidated Buildings in Mumbai
Monsoon or not, more and more building collapses are being reported in Mumbai. There were three building collapses and loss of lives reported during the first month of this monsoon season. Though the government, landlords, civic bodies and tenants realize that redevelopment is the best way, things are not moving fast in this direction.
There are many reasons for this slow pace of redevelopment process. Here are some of them.
1) Red-tapism
The Maharashtra government has introduced several incentives and regulations for redevelopment work for old and cessed buildings. These involve both individual as well as cluster redevelopment. However, the approval procedures are tedious and complicated. Another problem that the redevelopment process is facing is the rampant corruption among approving officials, which slows down the entire process. According to a survey by Remaking of Mumbai Federation (RoMF), the C ward alone has about 2,900 old buildings of which, only 15 have undergone redevelopment as off now.
2) Inadequate incentives
Though the government has introduced regulations and incentives, there are very frequent changes of rules for redevelopment. The set of incentives also varies for different areas. For example, there are attractive FSI incentives for redevelopment projects in the city area whereas there are not many such incentives in the suburbs. Moreover, the incentives that are introduced for suburbs have not been implemented yet. Hence, it is not viable for builders. There are also some regulations that affect the profit margins of developers.
The incentives and regulations introduced are not really attractive for developers to take up redevelopment projects, especially in suburbs.
3) Cluster redevelopment an uphill task
Cluster redevelopment is not an easy task. It involves various processes such as obtaining consent from landlords and tenants, providing temporary accommodation for occupants, reconstructing the building, compensating the landlords and developing the infrastructure in the area. The most difficult task is to bring the landlords and tenants together, and get them to agree on redevelopment terms, which takes up significant time.
Redevelopment of standalone societies is also not a very easy task either. There are many concerns of the tenants/occupiers that come into play such as the fear of losing home permanently, disputes with builder/landlord over compensation terms, etc which are not easy to address. There are also problems such as insufficient FSI and lack of conveyance or occupancy certificate and so on.
Revamp of redevelopment rules
The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) is planning to revamp certain redevelopment rules. Some proposed changes include giving a higher varying incentive in terms of FSI for cluster redevelopment. Earlier, the incentive was same for single building as well as cluster redevelopment in terms of free FSI. There is also an increase in the entitlement area for current occupants that has been proposed. There are various other regulations and processes that are proposed focused on standardizing and speeding up the redevelopment process.
