For redevelopment of the 56 Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) layouts in the city, the government will consider allowing developers who take up the scheme to pay stamp duty on the project in installment.
During a review meeting at the chief minister’s official residence Varsha on Friday, CM Uddhav Thackeray directed officials to examine whether developers can be given time till an occupation certificate is issued to pay stamp duty for this redevelopment. The meeting was attended by state ministers Jitendra Awhad, Subhash Desai, Anil Parab, Aditya Thackeray, special advisor to the CM Sitaram Kunte and senior bureaucrats.
There are 56 Mhada layouts in the city and the minimum area of each is approximately 10 acres. Many of the layouts are spread across 20 to over 100 acres. Most layouts are over 40 years old. Housing minister Jitendra Awhad said the objective is to discourage single building redevelopment as it leads to lopsided development. “In single building redevelopment, only the buildings that abut the main road often get redeveloped. Those further inside have no takers and Mhada has huge tracts of land which if properly developed can generate a lot of affordable housing. Cluster redevelopment will enable this as also better planning, and the city will get proper roads, drains, amenities like schools, hospitals and open spaces. We want to stop this haphazard redevelopment,” he said.
Architect and activist P K Das who has mapped all the Mhada layouts and designed the redevelopment of Motilal Nagar in Goregaon West spread over 137 acres said cluster redevelopment allows a town planning approach where infrastructure can be planned at a macro level. “If Mhada lands are properly redeveloped, we can generate 5-7 lakh affordable houses. Mumbai’s requirement is for 10 lakh.”
Thackeray who has been pushing for a single planning authority for the city also raised the issue of the BMC providing civic infrastructure to all buildings in the layouts. He directed BMC and Mhada officials to work out the modalities so that the municipal body can take over the maintenance and operation of civic infrastructure in these layouts.
