Mumbai: In a serious bid to put on fast track the stuck-up slum rehabilitation projects, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday given approval for the setting up of Stress Fund with a size of Rs 5,000 crore. Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad, after a meeting chaired by Thackeray, told the Free Press Journal, ‘’The banks, private finance companies and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) will pump in money to create the Stress Fund. The money will be used to revive the stuck up projects so that the tenants get their homes without further delays.’’
Awhad said the payment of rents to the tenants will be made from the Stress Fund.
There are more than 550 stuck slum rehabilitation projects in Mumbai for various reasons.
The Chief Minister’s nod came days after Awhad announced that SRA will take over all projects which are at standstill for a long and have taken big fat loans from financial institutions. As reported by Free Press Journal, there are more than 550 such projects which are stuck up and in which the builders and developers have taken loans ranging between Rs 50,000 crore and Rs 1 lakh crore.
Further, the housing department has decided that no loans should be passed by any bank or NBFC on the basis of letter of intent (LoI) given by Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) for redevelopment projects. The decision was taken after the government found that the developers have raised loans from the banks and NBFCs based on the LoI.