Govt nod for redevelopment of BDD chawls

Mumbai: It’s final. Residents of the city’s BDD chawls are all set for go in for a massive lifestyle change. A new section 33(9) B will be introduced in the Development Control Regulations exclusively for redevelopment of the BDD chawls, it was decided on Tuesday.
Each of the 18,000 tenants living in these chawls at Worli, Naigaum, N M Joshi Marg and Sewri will be entitled to a free ownership 500 sq ft carpet flat.This is inclusive of fungible floor space index (FSI).
For non-residential structures and religious structures, the area after rehabilitation will be the same as the existing carpet area or as decided by the government.
The Sewri site will be redeveloped by the Mumbai Port Trust which owns the land. Mantralaya officials said a copy of the draft notification will be provided to MbPT to carry out the redevelopment.
On Tuesday, the state urban development department finalised the draft notification and this will soon be put up for objections and suggestions, said officials.
The section 33(9) B allows for the scheme to be implemented in phases with pro rata utilisation of the total admissible FSI for the rehab and sale component.
Officials said the new section was prompted by the fact that the tolerated structures in the BDD campus are not contiguous and so cannot be classified as slums.
“The 33(9) urban renewal scheme allows for the amalgamation and redevelopment of slums with the cluster but there is no mention of tolerated structures. Hence the need for a new cluster policy exclusively for the BDD chawls,” said an official. Also, no permission will be required from the tenants for the redevelopment, while in case of other cluster redevelopment, consent of at least 70% of the tenants is a must. BDD chawl residents have opposed MHADA carrying out the redevelopment.
The scheme requires an environment impact assessment to be done before its implementation. The Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA) which has been appointed as the nodal agency will execute the project through contractors.
“There will be no affordable segment in the sale component. It will be entirely middle and high income group,” said the official.
Each of the four Bombay Development Directorate (BDD)-owned chawl sites have been identified as a cluster. These will be redeveloped under the cluster redevelopment scheme. The FSI is 4 on the gross plot area as in the urban renewal scheme or a total sum of the rehab FSI and free sale FSI, whichever is higher. The latter incentive is allowed in the redevelopment of old and dilapidated buildings. Officials said at all the four sites, 50% of the area is open and unencumbered, so the FSI required will not be more than 4.3.
Around 2,916 tenements house police personnel and their families. Most of them have lived here for nearly three generations. These were meant to be official quarters. An official said the rehab flats will be handed over to the home department, and it will have to decide whether to use them as official quarters or hand them over to the present residents.
“If the home department gives these up, the redevelopment of government quarters at Bandra will face similar demands and there the redevelopment is on a much larger scale,” said an official.