Mumbai: The Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government will face a big challenge over how to provide affordable houses to citizens, especially in Mumbai. The reason? The state's housing agency, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has no sufficient stock of house. Following this, it is unable to meet the housing demand in Mumbai despite receiving a huge response.
Due to fewer houses at its disposal, the MHADA Mumbai Board had earlier held a mini lottery. For instance, in 2018, it held a lottery for only 1,395 houses, for which it had received more than 1.64 lakh applications. While in 2017, for 819 houses only, a draw of lottery was held and over a lakh applicants had showed interest in the houses. Similarly, in 2016, the MHADA had held a lottery for only 910 houses and importantly, over a lakh people had applied for this as well.
Meanwhile, the MHADA has already started looking for land banks to create more housing stock. Reportedly, it had planned to make a consolidated report of all its land parcels. For the purpose, a private agency would be appointed as a project management consultant. The consultant will be tasked to conduct a geographic information system (GIS) mapping of these land parcels and submit a report to the housing authority.
FAST FACT
In 2018, a lottery was held for only 1,395 houses. MHADA had received over 1.64 lakh applications.
In 2017, for 819 houses, over a lakh applicants had showed interest in the scheme.
In 2016, the MHADA had held a lottery for only 910 houses and over a lakh people had applied for this scheme as well.
