All old buildings in city to be redeveloped within 5 yrs: Minister
Mumbai : Redevelopment of all the 16,000 old buildings (cessed buildings) would be complete within next 5 years, Housing Minister Prakash Mehta told the Legislative Assembly on Monday. He also said that the State government will construct 11 lakh houses in Mumbai and about seven lakh in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Total 50% of these houses would be completed within next 5 years, the minister said while replying to a calling attention motion moved by BJP MLAs in Mumbai.
“The government could bring down the number of the cessed buildings in the city to 16,000 from 19,000 few years ago. We have decided to complete the redevelopment of all the cessed buildings in next five years. FSI for such buildings has already been raised to 3 from 2.5 and we would not hesitate to increase it to 3.5, if the need be,” Mehta said.
The minister also said that the redevelopment projects by MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority) will be monitored to ensure the completion of the projects.
“We will not shrug off the responsibility of the completion of redevelopment projects by merely issuing no objection certificate. MHADA will monitor all the development projects till its completion so that they are not delayed,” he said.
Responding to the alleged corruption and delays in the implementation of the slum rehabilitation projects, Mehta said rehabilitation of the slums will be allotted to builders by the government.
“We will prepare the master plan of the slum rehabilitation by preparing a list of slum-dwellers across the city. The projects will be allotted through e-tendering. This will help us in completing the projects on time,” he said.
BJP MLA Ashish Shelar, on the other hand, demanded white paper on the slum rehabilitation projects and also alleged that government officials were ‘stalling the projects for obvious reasons.’
Mehta also announced that the builders would be allowed to go for redevelopment (of buildings), irrespective of the construction year, if the government authorities have announced them dilapidated. Hence, even a building constructed in 2000, can go for the redevelopment, he said.
He said a plan has been chalked out for construction of about 50,000 tenements for police personnel in Mumbai with private participation.
