Journalism of Courage
The state government may soon take up the long-pending redevelopment of its century-old 207 BDD chawls in Central Mumbai under the cluster redevelopment policy.
Ravindra Waikar, Sena leader and state Minister for Housing, said on Tuesday that the state government will take a call on the project being executed by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) under the cluster scheme.
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The previous Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra was in favour of private redevelopment of the chawls spread over a prime 93 acres of government-owned land in the island city despite the housing board’s willingness to carry it out and generate tens of thousands of affordable housing stock in the process. Waikar said that while earlier the FSI allowed for only 3, under the cluster policy the chawls can be constructed using a FSI of 4. “In a recently held review meeting, MHADA has said that it is capable of taking up the project on its own. We are looking at the possibility of providing the existing tenants with a larger 525 sq ft area as against the previously decided limit of 300 sq ft,” said Waikar.
The four storey run-down structures currently have 160 sq ft houses with common bathroom facilities. A total of 16,544 families live in these chawls spread over Worli, Naigaon, NM Joshi Marg and on port trust’s Sewri land.
