The additional floor space index to create additional housing stock to provide commercial incentive to developers for the redevelopment project is expected to be utilised for low and affordable housing
Around 21 eligible slum dwellers were allotted flats in a redeveloped building under the Dharavi Sector - V scheme by drawing lots, by the Mumbai Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA unit) at MHADA headquarters at Bandra East on Monday.
Mumbai Board Joint Chief Officer Sanjay Bhagwat, Deputy Chief Officer T.P.Rathod, Deputy Registrar Rajendra Gaikwad, Cooperation officer R B Jadhav, Competent officer Bhosale and others were present.
The building has 358 flats admeasuring 300 square feet each. Of these, 266 dwellers were allotted flats in May 2016, while 65 eligible dwellers were allotted flats in May 2017.
The Dharavi redevelopment is a five-phased project worth Rs. 25,000 crore. The redevelopment has already been delayed and the state government is working on creating a developers consortium which would split the entire slum colony into five phases, to facilitate and unburden investments and expedite the project.
By a far estimate, nearly 60,000 families live in Dharavi. The additional floor space index to create additional housing stock to provide commercial incentive to developers for the redevelopment project is expected to be utilised for low and affordable housing. However, the bigger concern for the state government is to ensure the Dharavi redevelopment serves to give the slum colony a facelift and also meet the target of affordable housing. The state government is planning to create 22 lakh affordable houses to cater to urban and rural Maharashtra by 2019.
The Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana is being enforced by the state along with pushing ongoing SRA projects to make shelter for all a reality in next three years. In the past, several attempts to provide higher incentives through 33 per cent Transfer of Development Right (TDR) outside Dharavi to make it commercially feasible did not elicit the desired response.