1,000 affordable MHADA homes in next two years?

His assurance seems too good to be true, but then chairman of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority's repair board Prasad Lad throws around a few numbers to make his point. Promising that the agency will acquire nearly 1,000 affordable homes in South Mumbai in the next two years, Lad explained that 263 cessed buildings of MHADA on Bombay Port Trust land and 185 such structures on LIC land would be redeveloped.

Some of the dwellings generated in the process would be used to accommodate people staying in old buildings in the island city, while the remaining would be offered to the common man via a lottery.u00a0Lad earlier held meetings with representatives of BPT and LIC, and claimed he has received positive response from both. The chairman expressed hope that the redevelopment process would be complete for all the structures in the next two years.

"There are about 500 buildings on BPT and LIC lands, which are cessed properties. Many of these structures are in a rundown condition. Even if we expect a mere two flats from each building after redevelopment, we would get no less than 1,000 homes. The number is actually likely to be more." As per a MHADA insider, on the assumption that the organisation doesn't get a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the concerned offices, if the residents support the movie then the agency, through intervention, can redevelop these buildings.u00a0

"Many of these buildings are in a really bad shape and need urgent redevelopment. Hence, MHADA is evincing interest in the enterprise," said the officer. On the other hand, Lad intends to meet ministers of concerned departments to get prompt permissions for the project. Nearly 20,000 families currently reside in these structures and if redevelopment takes place, their one room or 1BHK flats would get bigger and MHADA too would get additional space.

20,000
Approx number of families currently residing in the buildings to be redevelopedu00a0