Mumbai: The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) lottery results were announced on Sunday when it was revealed that the costliest flat in south Mumbai, which was worth Rs 5.80 crore, was won by Shiv Sena worker Vinod Shirke.
Mr Shirke also won another HIG (higher income group) category house, which costs around Rs 4.99 crore. Around 136 applications were received against three flats, including the above two and one costing Rs 5.13 crore.
The lottery of 1,384 houses was drawn after the authority received a whopping 1.67 lakh applications. Among 49 countries globally, 43,756 people viewed this lottery live through web casting.
All three costly flats were in Dhavalgiri apar-tments located in Grant Road near August Kranti Maidan. “This is the 19th year that I had appl-ied for the lottery. Initially, I had won a flat but it was returned due to its poor condition. However, this time I am happy that I won the flat in the HIG category,” said Mr Shirke. He added, “Since I have won two flats, the second one will be given back to Mhada as per the rules.”
The three costliest flats the Mumbai Board received as a surplus were from the Mumbai Repair and Reconstruction Board (MRRB). However, recently the developer had put up a case against Mhada for failing to prove its title ownership over the flats before announcing the lottery.
“There is no problem in ownership. The flats belong to Mhada. We are due to pay the maintenance charges to the society and that is the issue. It will be cleared soon,” said Vinay Ghosalkar, MRRB president.
The lottery held in the headquarters of Mhada started around 10.40 am on Sunday. In the very first draw, Anita Kamble won a LIG (low income group) flat in Mulund. Before the draw began, housing minister Prakash Mehta announced the construction of five lakh homes in the Mum-bai Metropolitan Region (MMR). He also revealed that work might start by February next year.
Further, Mr Mehta announced that a proposal has been forwarded with this year’s lottery in order to speed up the documentation work of the lottery winners and declare their eligibility. “Sometimes, due to delay in the documentation, one comes to know that the winner is ineligible. To avoid this, we are planning to declare his eligibility as early as possible,” said Mr Mehta.
