Builders line up to join MHADA panel

“Under the revised rules, those living in our colonies that are in need of reconstruction have the option of either appointing their own developer or approaching MHADA. In case they take the second option, we will award the work to the one who gives the lowest quotation on per sq ft construction cost from among our bunch of empanelled developers,” said a MHADA official. The low-rise MHADA colonies, almost half of which are on large plots, offer a lucrative proposition for developers in case the society decides to appoint one on its own. The builder gets to keep 40-70 per cent of the area used to rehabilitate the existing tenants as his incentive for sale in the open market. After deducting the developer and the tenants’ share, this model however leaves very little homes for the public housing stock.

On the other hand, if the housing colony approaches MHADA, the entire built-up area, left over after rehabilitating the existing tenants in bigger homes, will be retained by the housing board and released later as public housing stock. “In this model, the tenants will have the security of dealing with developers who are registered with us after payment of a security deposit,” said Niranjankumar Sudhanshu, chief officer of MHADA’s Mumbai board, adding that in addition to developers, construction firms such as Larsen and Toubro had also evinced interest.

“We hope that the role is more than that of a contractor. We would be more interested if we can be a co-developer with MHADA wherein we get to share the benefit of the extra FSI,” said Sunil Mantri from Mantri Realty.

Once the panel is finalised within a month, in addition to private colonies MHADA plans to take up on a priority basis the redevelopment of its colonies that are occupied by government officials from departments such as coast guard, police and public sector undertakings.

shalini.nair@expressindia.com