11 October,2012 07:04 AM IST | | Varun singh
Redeveloping a colony comprising nearly 3,000 tenants is no mean task. But if you have the means - essentially money - things start falling into place.
Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) that plans to revamp Vikhroli's Tagore Nagar - the city's biggest colony - will give a corpus fund of Rs 5 lakh to each tenant. That amounts to Rs 150 crore in total.
Revamp on the cards: The Tagore Nagar Colony at Vikhroli which is up for redevelopment by MHADA
The housing authority will not only generate 5,500 homes for the common man, but will also sell the same number of accommodations via builders as part of a 50:50 joint venture.
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Sources say some officials in MHADA feel the agency should redevelop the area on its own, acquire all the 11,000 homes, and sell them directly to the people.
This is the first time MHADA would be handing out any form of recompense to renters.
According to a senior official from the agency, a plan is in place to disburse Rs 5 lakh to each of the 3,000 tenants staying on the 200-acre Tagore Nagar plot.
Tenders will be invited for the project by next month. Satish Gawai, CEO of MHADA confirmed the information.
A senior MHADA official said, "There are 2,966 tenants on the plot. We are entering into a 50:50 joint venture where the contractor or builder would redevelop the whole area, handover the properties of tenants and also 5,500 newly-created residences to MHADA."
The renters who right now live in tiny 160-180 sq ft lodgings will get 484 sq ft homes after redevelopment.
"The land belongs to us. Why should we let any other builder go there? In return for redevelopment we will get a huge housing stock that would be handed out to the common man via lottery system," said a senior MHADA official.
Some real estate experts feel if MHADA is ready to take a risk, it should go all out and construct the flats by using a contractor, not with a developer, and share the profits.
"We have the machinery; it's our land in Tagore Nagar. We don't need any permission like NOC either. We are prepared to pay the corpus funds.
We have our transit camps to accommodate tenants till redevelopment takes place. So why should we not redevelop the property on our own and get all the housing stock? The aam Mumbaikar will then have more options for affordable homes in the city," said a MHADA official on condition of anonymity.u00a0
