MMR will need 10,000 hectares to build 21 lakh homes: MMRDA

While the government has identified around 800 hectares of land parcel in satellite cities near Mumbai to build 1.1 lakh affordable homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has projected that satellite cities near Mumbai do not have adequate land for the same. Reasoning that the cities won’t have adequate space in accordance with the expected population growth in the future, the Authority has said it would require creation of 10,000 hectares of new land parcel for construction of 21 lakh homes by 2036 — excluding re-development.

The state government had earlier not included Mumbai for construction of affordable of homes under PMAY citing land shortage. However, MMRDA in its draft regional plan for 2016-2036 projects that even satellite cities have a big challenge when it comes to creation of new land parcel for construction of homes required in ratio with the expected population growth. The expected growth is almost by two-fold or three-fold in satellite cities like Vasai-Virar, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Panvel and Mira-Bhayandar.

The MMRDA in its regional plan has projected that to meet the total need of 44.42 lakh homes in the MMR, 21.79 lakh of housing stock would have to be constructed on new land parcels. “The requirement of land for new housing stock is separately calculated for all the urban local bodies (ULBs) in MMR and the land requirement for approximately 21.79 lakh would be through 10,000 hectares,” reads the chapter on housing needs of the MMR in MMRDA’s regional plan.

An official from planning division of MMRDA, said, “The estimated housing need can be fulfilled by the extensions of the boundaries of the municipal corporations and council in MMR.”