Societies cautious about self-redvpt

Mumbai: There are more than 20,000 cooperative housing societies that will be benefitted by the decision. However, experts feel that redevelopment of these buildings will not be possible without the involvement of private builders, and societies may not be able to afford self-redevelopment.

According to experts, since this is a new concept, housing societies are waiting for those that have applied for self-redevelopment to complete the process to get a gist of the entire procedure.

Additionally, tenants are also facing trouble owing to the business of bribing in the market. “In case of ‘self-redevelopment’, society members can take the responsibility and each member will have a say in appointing professionals for the work. However, clashes among society members over decision making delays the work,” said a housing activist from the city.

“There are 200 buildings in Pant Nagar, Ghatkopar, that are waiting for redevelopment but only one among them has come forward with the proposal. The rest want to see how it goes with this one society and then forward the proposal,” said Chandrashekhar Prabhu, a housing expert.

Meanwhile, activists have also pointed at the delays caused by developers in completing projects. According to exp-erts, there are arou-nd 5,800 housing societies in the city whose redevelopment work has been stalled due to delay caused by the developer. In many cases, the tenants have had to wait more than the scheduled period for project completion.