Mumbai: To achieve the aim and speed up the construction of affordable housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the state government has established ‘Mahahousing’ as an encouragement for the builders. The Government Resolution (GR) issued on January 11, 2018 regarding the Mahahousing explains that any private builder who wishes to construct 5,000 and beyond township can tie-up with the government and in return they will be incentivised in form of extra Floor Space Index (FSI).
Ramchandra Dhanawade, Under Secretary of state housing department, said, “Mahahousing will encourage to create maximum affordable housing stock. If they come up with 5,000 township projects, they can tie-up with us (government) and get an FSI of 2.5 from 1. The Mahahousing corporation will work on public private partnership (PPP). Also if builders take any housing projects on No Development Zone (NDZ) or green belt where usually the FSI is 0.2, they will get one FSI.
Moreover, the home buyers will also be given subsidy of around Rs 1.5 lakh each for those from the economically weaker section, who buy a house developed on this private land. Till now such assistance is provided only in case of properties developed on land provided by state government or municipal bodies.”
As per the GR, the government aims to construct 19.40 lakh houses by 2022 in around 384 cities of the state. However, to achieve the goal, dependence only upon the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) is not enough. Currently, the MHADA provides affordable houses to people of different income groups through lottery system every year.
Also, it’s a well-known fact that providing only a few thousand houses by MHADA will not able to fulfil the gap between the housing demand and supply as lakhs of homebuyers apply for these houses. To ensure the efficient and smooth functioning of Mahahousing, it will be chaired by Chief Minister himself. Also the state targeting to get Rs 100 crore each from the MHADA, Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp Limited (SPPL) and others for financial assistance.
