Mumbai: The BMC will move residents of Matunga Labour Camp to a temporary camp nearby while it undertakes structural repairs of its five buildings there.
The residents were unwilling to move to the slum resettlement colony in Mahul, which has come to be referred to as a “toxic hellhole” and a “gas chamber”. They will instead will live in temporary quarters nearby while the BMC repairs the buildings.
They five buildings at the labour camp, a tenanted property of the municipality, contain nearly 170 flats and were built in 1960.“The redevelopment process will take another few years, and we didn’t want to risk the lives of the residents. That is why we decided to undertake major structural repairs,” an official said.
BMC issued tender
The BMC issued a tender for the repair works, which will cost Rs8.50 crore, on July 19.
“The residents were not ready to go to Mahul, so we tried to get accommodation for them in PAPs (houses for project-affected people). But we had only five PAPs, so we decided to build the transit camp in a nearby area,” an official from the another civic official said.
