Mumbai: In its bid to expedite the redevelopment of 25,000 slums along Mumbai coast, the state government will send an environmental cost-benefit analysis report to the Centre within two months, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde assured the Maharashtra state legislature on Thursday.
"An environmental cost and benefit analysis report is being prepared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) regarding the redevelopment of slums that come under CRZ-2 along Mumbai’s coastline. This is a crucial analysis for the redevelopment of these slums which will be ready and sent to the central government in the next two months,” Shinde told the Legislative Assembly.
Fate of 25k slums will be decided in next 2 months
“This means that the fate of nearly 25,000 slums housing nearly 1.25 lakh people in Mumbai will be decided over the next two months,” Mumbai BJP president MLA Adv Ashish Shelar, who had moved a calling attention motion over the issue, told the media after the assurance by CM Shinde.
While speaking on the issue in the House, Shelar said that the issue of redevelopment of these slums had been lingering since 2011 and that the recent city development plan had completely blocked the way.
According to the CRZ notification dated January 6, 2011 issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, stringent conditions were placed on the redevelopment of these slums and the state government was asked to bear 51% cost share.
Notification date changed
The notification was later changed on January 18, 2019, but still there was still no clarity on the redevelopment of protected huts. When the state government sent a letter to the Centre on this issue, it was directed to submit a proposal in this regard. In the meanwhile, the new development plan for Mumbai was prepared, in which reservations for parks and playgrounds were made in the coastal areas, thereby turning them into no-development zones.
As a result, the path of redevelopment of these slums became all the more difficult. Around the same time, the Union ministry of environment and climate change held a meeting on this issue in New Delhi, in which the Centre directed the state government to submit a report on the impact on the environment if redevelopment of these slums was permitted, Shelar said.
“On the one hand we are trying to make Mumbai slum-free, while on the other there are still pockets in Mumbai like Worli, Bandra, Khar, Juhu, Versova and Dharavi, where nearly 1.25 lakh people residing in 25,000-odd slums are waiting for years for a favourable decision from the government,” Shelar said and asked, by when will the BMC and the SRA submit this environment cost-benefit analysis report to the Centre over which CM Shinde said that it will be done within two months.
