Mhada to map land records for more affordable housing

Mumbai: In a bid to construct more homes under affordable housing, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) has decided to map its land records.

To check the availability of lands for construction, the housing authority plans to outsource the survey work to an agency. The survey is estimated to be completed within three months.

“The demand for homes is increasing with each year’s lottery, which is why we are initiating a survey to trace the lands available under our authority for construction of homes. A third-party agency like MMRDA may be roped in to carry out the survey,” said Uday Samant, president of Mhada.

The move comes after receipt of a whopping 1.26 lakh applications against a mere 1,384 homes, making the housing authority incapable of even providing 10 per cent of the demand. “The response has improved this year after the prices of homes received through premium were brought down to more affordable rates,” said Mr Samant. He revealed that the housing authority was eyeing around 6,500 homes from the Pahadi Goregaon project, which would be sold under lottery in future.

The Asian Age had reported in its September 16 edition about the lack of land records with Mhada. Lack of staff in various departments had affected the maintenance of records with the authority.

Further, the posts of de-puty collector and tehsild-ars had been lying vacant in Mhada for many years.