Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) will rehabilitate families affected by Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 at the same place and every tenement will be entitled to double its current area. For example, a 350 square feet tenement will be increased to 700 square feet. Further, if any individual wishes to avail more than the area he or she is eligible for, they can opt for the same by paying according to current market rates in the area.
Around 750 families across 26 buildings in Girgaum and Kalbadevi had last year protested the alignment of the project, citing their own displacement. The issue had also given rise to a cold war between ruling allies, Shiv Sena and BJP.
Ashwini Bhide, Managing Director, MMRC, said, “We had appointed Catapult Realty Consultant to understand how to go ahead with the redevelopment of the project. In a report by Catapult, it has been suggested that redevelopment of buildings can be done at the same place. We will soon announce the whole plan about redevelopment, how we are going ahead with the project and what development control regulation (DCR) will be applied for redevelopment.”
The Catapult report also suggests that redevelopment can be done by implementing cluster redevelopment policy and considering that, MMRC also plans to redevelop buildings nearby the project-affected people (PAPs) as they too will require redevelopment in the future.
A MMRC official said, “The idea to also consider nearby buildings could be because if a private developer is roped in for redeveloping, he can exploit maximum plot area and utilise the fungible Floor Space Index (FSI) accordingly. However, it is yet to be decided whether a private developer will be roped in for rehabilitation or the state government will allocate funds for redevelopment.”
The 33.5-km Metro-3 corridor will be the first underground corridor in the city with 27 stations. According to the initial plan, the corridor will be ready by 2020. However, MMRC plans to complete the first phase of the project from Kanjurmarg to Seepz by 2018 for which work is expected to start in the first quarter of 2017. The total cost of the project is around Rs 27,000 crore.
