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MUMBAI, November 30: Sitting on land in these times of recession? There's a buyer: The Shiv Shahi Punarvasan Prakalp Ltd (SSPPL). The SSP...

MUMBAI, November 30: Sitting on land in these times of recession? There’s a buyer: The Shiv Shahi Punarvasan Prakalp Ltd (SSPPL). The SSPPL’s decision to accept unencumbered land to build its target of 25,000 tenements for slum rehabilitation on open land is a godsend of sorts for owners, who would otherwise have been waiting for takers. Acres of land at places like Mahul, Chembur and Wadala are being offered to the SSPPL for construction of tenements, in return for which the SRA, (Slum Rehabilitation Authority), the planning authority for the slum rehabilitation is offering them TDRs (transfer of development rights).

But not just yet. “Nobody can come, give us land and take TDRs instead,” defends an SRA official, aware of the tricky situation it could get itself in, “since we shall be first perusing the land records. The land should have a clear title, there should be no reservations on it, it should be viable for construction and free from CRZ regulations”. More importantly, SSPPL will have to ensurethat slum dwellers are indeed willing to go to those distances to be rehabilitated and the free sale tenements will actually get buyers.

A developer remarked that on while this would, on paper, show that SSPPL has been able to obtain land free of cost, it only helps the land owner. Further, it would save the cash-strapped SSPPL money for construction it would have to undertake. “It would have been better if SSPPL were to insist that the land owner build tenements on the land and then offer them for rehabilitation,” he suggested, “Only vitally affected (construction) projects could be taken up by the SSPPL”.

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Lined up for the SSPPL are around 32 to 50 acres of land near RCF at Mahul allegedly belonging to Conwood Properties. Indian Hume Pipe, at Antop Hill, Around 90 acres of land is up for grabs at Wadala, and another piece of land at Bhakti Nagar near RCF. While G S Gill, managing director of SSPPL confirmed the earlier two proposals, he couldn’t confirm the third.

“Many of them are in absolutelypreliminary stages,” he said, “People just come and talk of their land and promise to get back”. He has no doubts about the success of such a project. According to him, SSPPL has kept both the options ready. “For those who are willing to construct tenements themselves, we are giving extra FSI depending on the number of tenements constructed. While in the other case of open land, in pure money terms, it would make no difference to us”.

He admitted, however, that ultimately it was the city which would be paying, as the TDRs making inroads into already congested areas of the city, and burdening available amenities of sanitation, water, drainage. “But in each case, we shall be looking into the viability of the scheme. The TDR usable for these schemes may be different. In some cases, TDR usable might be only to the north of the origin of the land. It then becomes unviable for development”, he added.

The SSPPL has a board of directors to look into each such scheme being offered to them. The SRA, whichhas to be satisfied about the success of each scheme before approving it, is at present studying the Indian Hume Pipe land at Wadala and the SSPPL plans to build an 18 storeyed structure on it. The centrally located seems promising for its free sale component.