With the Lok Sabha and state assembly polls in 2024 drawing near, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government in Maharashtra is going all-out to woo the powerful vote bank in Mumbai. Now the buzz is that, after resolving the deadlock over the redevelopment of 388 dilapidated MHADA buildings in Mumbai, the state government is now considering uniform rules to extend benefits to all citizens during building redevelopment.The new policy will ensure that all citizens, even if their flats are less than 300 square feet, will nevertheless get a minimum area of 300 square feet when their buildings are redeveloped.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had earlier ordered the administration to give the 388 MHADA flat owners the benefits of Development Control Rule 33(7). MHADA had redeveloped the 388 buildings three to four decades ago by demolishing around 900 old and dilapidated buildings, with 27,373 flats, in the island city. The state government’s urban development department (UDD) is now working on the formula and rules to allow them to be redeveloped a second time under 33(7).
Free homes of at least 300 square feet in redevelopment projects are given to residents living in cessed buildings (private buildings which pay cess for repairs and maintenance to MHADA),” said a UDD officer. “CM Shinde had earlier announced in the monsoon session that the government would extend the benefits of this scheme to the residents of 388 buildings built by MHADA. But there are other buildings too in Mumbai, and instead of taking new decisions for different buildings, we are planning to take a policy decision once and for all. This new decision will ensure free houses of minimum 300 square feet to all Mumbai residents currently living in 100-to-200-square-feet homes in old buildings.” .
In a related development, to ease the self-redevelopment of old buildings in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai, the Maharashtra government has set the ball rolling by instructing authorities to approve proposals for self-redevelopment within three months.The direction was given by the Maharashtra Housing Department by way of a government resolution few months ago.The Maharashtra government had earlier announced single-window clearance for self-redevelopment of old buildings in Mumbai and other parts of the state. "Now, the officers of these nodal agencies with single-window clearance should ensure proposals for self-redevelopment are addressed and cleared within three months from the date of proposal.