State likely to offer 405 sq ft redeveloped units, rehab and sale ratio to be 3:2
The long wait for the residents of century-old Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) chawls is over, as the state is likely to give 405 sq ft of redeveloped flats. The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) has shortlisted three architects who will prepare a master plan to redevelop the 93 acres of land located in Worli, Naigaum and NM Joshi Marg.
S.S. Zende, vice-president of Mhada, said,“I have received the presentations of the three shortlisted architects by the Mhada jury which looked at presentations made by 13 shortlisted architects. Following this, the jury shortlisted the presentations of three architects which has been approved and forwarded to the state housing department.”
The jury, which supervised the presentations, included the chief architect of Mhada and principal of JJ College of Architecture.
BDD chawls will be redeveloped under the 33(9), cluster development policy of the state and it will get the floor space index (FSI) of 4. FSI is the ratio of the permissible built-up area to the plot area.
“The designs we have received by the architects propose to construct 405 sq ft carpet area. We are sure of fitting a small-sized 2 BHK apartment for each tenant in that area. The rehab and sale proportion is divided as 60 per cent for the rehab segment and 40 per cent for the sale (commercially exploitable) segment. However, not every tenant will get 405 sq ft apartment, as there have been many encroachments. For example, there are a few shops of 10 and 20 sq ft and they cannot be given 405 sq ft space. We may allot them space according to the Slum Rehabilitation Act (SRA), which has maximum limit of 269 sq ft. The encroachments, which occurred post 2000, will not be entitled to any benefits,” said Mr Zende.
It is interesting to note that the talks of redeveloping 100-year-old structure, which is in a bad shape, has been ongoing for the past 10 years. There are nearly 13,500 tenants residing in the BDD chawls and it is one of the biggest cluster development projects.
A senior housing department official said, “We have received the proposals and we will have to consider that everything is in order as the designs will also have to be presented to the tenants. Only after that the selected architect will be given the green signal to prepare a draft master plan (blueprint) of the redevelopment process. We can expect the draft master plan to be ready by mid-2016.”
