The Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board(MBRRB) likely to get unsold Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) lottery houses located across Mumbai for transit accommodation. An in-principle approval has been given by the MHADA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anil Diggikar on Friday. Following the demand made by the MBRRB Chairman Vinod Ghosalkar, who made this demand.
Ghosalkar said, "Already there is a shortage of transit houses which is offered to the residents/families staying in 'most dangerous' structures. Therefore, if these unsold lottery houses are given to our board we can use them for the right purpose." These unsold houses are from the lottery draw held in between 2011-2019; lying vacant from past several years anyhow, he asserted.
According to the data with MBRRB there are total 1,826 such unsold/surrendred lottery houses of 300 sq.mt. The lottery winners did not claim these properties for various reasons. Ghosalkar stated, "Cases of illegal occupants is already rampant in MHADA's transit camps. We are already dealing with it. If these houses too continue to remain vacant/ignored, chances of illegal occupancy is possible. Therefore to avoid such problems using these houses for temporary accommodation is an ideal way".
Before monsoon as an annual exercise the MBRRB identifies and declare names of buildings which are unfit for habitation. This year total 21 such buildings have been declared by this board as most dangerous. The list includes names of 10 buildings of previous year. There are about 14,000 cess buildings in the island city of Mumbai. Since these buildings are beyond 80years old and many are also more than 100 years old, they already come in the category of dangerous buildings. However, in the pre-monsoon survey MBRRB checks the most dangerous buildings out of it. Accordingly, it alerts residents asking them vacate their houses as a preventive measure.
