Corrupt Mumbai builders have left 1.25 lakh families in lurch
According to an estimate, about 5,800 redevelopment projects in the city are at a standstill and hapless citizens have been left in the lurch by fly-by-night builders who abandoned the projects after promising new homes in place of what were residences for generations. Over 1.25 lakh families are believed to be affected because builders stopped paying rent and there is no chance of the projects being resurrected. It is in this backdrop that the self-redevelopment movement took root. Housing activist ChandrashekharPrabhu, who conceived the housing society self-redevelopment scheme and wrote the policy for the Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank to fund such projects, said, “As many as 726 societies have already resolved to go by the no-builder scheme and are reaping rich dividends in the form of more area, better planning, better quality of construction, timely completion, more corpus, all without giving any irrevocable power of attorney to anybody. Members give consent to their society and get at least one more room than what builders offer. Moreover, the corpus is at least double of what builders give. The benefits increase in Mhada colonies because FSI is much more.” Prabhu said loan repayment is through the sale of flats in a project’s free sale component. “There is a twoyear moratorium for smaller projects and three-year moratorium for larger projects. Most payments come from the booking of flats and there is no question of penalties,” he said. The housing activist has been addressing meetings of housing societies across the city and mentoring many of them on self-redevelopment. Mhada chief MilindMhaiskar said the number of Mhada housing societies approaching the housing authority for self-redevelopment has gone up. “There are few credible builders in the market and people have realized that it is better to redevelop their buildings on their own,” he said. On the third floor of the Mhada headquarters in Bandra (east), a special redevelopment cell has been formed to assist housing societies on Mhada land that are keen to go it alone. Former state minister for housing Sachin Ahir said the government should give tax benefits and extra FSI to societies going in for the scheme.
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