Winners will get possession in 6 months, says authority

Mumbai: Mhada has claimed that winners of its 2017 lottery will be given possession of their flats in the next six months. There are doubts however over Mhada’s ability to stick to the proposed deadline as the authority is yet to handover possession of 306 out of the 972 flats announced in its lottery last year.

As part of this year’s lottery, a total 819 flats are to be handed over, of which eight flats are for less income groups, 192 flats for low-income groups and 281 for medium-income groups.

A senior Mhada official said, “The new rules imposed by Rera (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) apply to structures which are in the lottery too since Rera registration has become compulsory. Thus, this year, we may not delay possession because then the housing authority will need to pay penalty. We will hand over possession in the next six to seven months or even before that once the lottery is announced.”

Recently, the authority handed over possession of flats to winners of its 2015 lottery. The possession was delayed since the developer did not obtain occupancy certificates (OCs) for the buildings.

In 2015, 232 people won flats in the Malwani area, western suburbs, however they were denied possession for two years.