Civic body asked to provide spaces for rehab projects

Mumbai: The state government has asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to provide open spaces for the construction of 50,000 tenements in Mumbai for Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) projects. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is trying to push housing projects, including SRA, so as to achieve targets of the “Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)”, said sources from the housing department.

The union government is targeting construction of 19 lakh houses in the state till 2022, under PMAY. Accordingly, the state has approved construction of 182,783 new houses in the state under this scheme. MHADA has sent 94 project proposals to the state government, out of which 60 projects have been approved. The government has assured that it will provide affordable housing to the poor in the state. As such, 121,000 houses will be reserved only for the economically backward in the state. The state has approved 11 housing projects for the Konkan Board, which will construct 26,000 houses in the Mumbai metropolitan area, said housing department sources.

However, there are several issues in urban areas. Sufficient land is not available to construct tenements under low-cost housing. SRA schemes have been delayed for many years due to various reasons. At present, a letter of intent (LoI) has been issued to 1,513 SRA schemes and 4.41 lakh new houses will be constructed under them. The basic requirement for SRA schemes is transit camps which are not sufficiently available, causing a delay in the projects. The open spaces’ option has been preferred for it. If BMC provides open spaces, the scheme will get momentum, said housing department sources.