The Maharashtra government has made public a new development policy for tenant-occupied shabby building in the suburban area and non-closed tenant-occupied buildings in the island city. Yes, this step came due to the
recent demolition of the Ghatkopar building, which killed 50 people.
This new policy, the notification
of which has now been published by the Government of Maharashtra, is going to
benefit ten-storey buildings and non-winding ten-storey buildings in the island
city.
According to the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation, there are over 600 dilapidated buildings in Mumbai,
which have been declared as dangerous structures. Almost every part of the
country has such dangerous structures or buildings. The residents, especially
those belonging to the ten buildings, live as landlords or owners of flats in
these shabby buildings and do not undertake redevelopment work due to lack of
any motivation.
The current policy is only for
old closed buildings in the island city, where private builders receive additional
construction benefits for redeveloping such properties and re-housing tenants
in a new building. But they are properties that give tenants access to the
housing authority, MHADA, which includes cooperative housing societies that
were not previously covered under this policy.
Some of the salient features of
this policy are:
1) Those who occupied this place
before 13 June 1949 are covered under this policy.
2) Developers will get 50 percent
incentive floor space index (FSI) for redevelopment of the building.
3) Redevelopment of old buildings
requires 70% tenant consent.
4) A fund should be created by
the landlord who will take care of the maintenance of the building for a period
of 10 years.
5) Landlords should start the
construction of the building within one year from the date of demolition and
complete it within a period of five years.
6) Each tenant will be given a
carpeted area in the old building with a minimum area of 300 square feet and
a maximum area of 753 square feet.
7) Landlords must provide
alternative accommodation for tenants for the time of redevelopment.
It is hoped that this new
redevelopment policy will benefit thousands of people living in ten-ten
buildings. The developer community has also welcomed the move. However, such an
initiative alone cannot help solve the problem of old buildings in the city.
The state government may soon
issue detailed guidelines for regulating tenants' eligibility and for better
implementation of the policy.
