Mumbai: The BMC is set to convert six mill lands of Mumbai into gardens and recreational spaces. Houses for former mill workers will be constructed on the Western India mill land by the MHADA. According to the new proposal submitted to the improvements committee, the MHADA and the BMC will exchange lands to make this possible.
The mills in this proposal are Mafatlal, Matulya, Victoria, Hindustan Mill (Crown mill), Hindustan Mill units A and B and the MSTC, whose lands are being considered by the BMC for building gardens and recreational spaces. In the redevelopment of mills, the 1991 Development Council rule allowed the owners to retain 33 per cent of the land. The MHADA and the BMC will be given an equal share.
The proposal says that the 33 per cent of land held by MHADA in each of these six mills will be transferred to the BMC. In return, the BMC will hand over the 3,600-sq metres of the Western India mill to the BMC to construct houses for mill workers.
“In 2001, the Vilasrao Deshmukh government had tweaked the rule to allow the mill owners to own 33 per cent of the mill lands. The remaining too is to be shared equally by the two agencies. This leaves the BMC and the MHADA with very little room for recreational space and housing the mill workers,” said a civic official.
“This is our long-pending demand, as there was nothing MHADA could do with the small plots of land given to build our houses,” said Datta Iswalkar, of the Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti. Malls such as Phoenix and Raghuvanshi were able to take advantage of the loopholes in this law and get away without sharing anything with the MHADA or the BMC.” The improvements committee will discuss this proposal on January 31.
