These Mumbai Residents Are Rejecting 1,100-Sq-Ft Homes In Resettlement

A section of people in the six-decade-old locality in Goregaon, spread over 149 acres, wants even bigger homes from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority. Gaurav Rane, joint secretary of Jan Kalyankari Samiti, a residents’ welfare association, is among them. “We’re not against redevelopment but MHADA seems to be imposing its idea of redevelopment.”

Rane’s family of nine has been living in a two-storeyed 1,200-sq. ft home in Motilal Nagar’s first phase since the late 1960s. The ground floor has a hall and kitchen with vitrified flooring and bathroom, while the upper floor has three bedrooms. Rane, like most other residents of the locality, has extended the original 230-sq-ft home.

Their demands include:

• Houses of 1,600-sq-ft carpet area and two parking lots for each tenant.
• Modern amenities like club house, biogas and solar power plants.
• Not shifting people to a transit accommodation.
• A corpus of Rs 20 lakh for each flat.

A 1,600 sq-ft apartment in the neighbouring area is worth Rs 2.4-2.88 crore, according to data on the property website 99acres.com. No rehabilitation scheme has so far offered such large apartments in India’s costliest real estate market.

The project can provide better housing for residents of Motilal Nagar, according to Ramesh Prabhu, chairman of Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association. “MHADA should follow the Development Control Regulations while providing residents with additional compensatory area,” the housing sector analyst told BloombergQuint over the phone, adding that it would meet the residents’ needs.

With MHADA, a government agency, being the project’s promoter, the residents would also have security, Prabhu said. “Therefore, it’s important that both the residents and MHADA find a middle ground to finalise the redevelopment plan.”

Motilal Nagar is a maze of narrow lanes hemmed in by multi-storied homes sheltered by asbestos roofing. Old-timers say India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the project in 1961.

In 1987, MHADA provided the tenants structural ownership, with land ownership vested with the agency, after tenants pay a fixed amount. Over time, as their families grew, tenants of the 3,686-odd ground-floor structures—including 900-odd commercial establishments—expanded vertically without permission.

That forced the government to frame a policy to regularise such constructions in the ’90s. People could pay a premium for an additional 45 square metre (around 484 sq. ft). Those who opted for the scheme could legally have homes of up to 710 sq. ft. Many families built an upper floor or small gardens and porches.

“One unique thing about Motilal Nagar is that land with a basic shell was allocated to tenants,” said Prasad Shetty, urbanist and associate professor, School of Environment and Architecture. “This provided them with housing with low maintenance and incremental possibilities where people used their own resources to improve or extend their houses.”

MHADA said while some people paid the full premium to regularise illegal extensions, others paid half the amount and a few others didn’t pay anything. Residents were also asked to get their expansion plans sanctioned by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, but MHADA said nobody did it.

Matters came to a head in 2013 with the government initiating a demolition drive against these constructions and the residents challenging the move in the Bombay High Court. The court directed MHADA redevelop the area, and ordered the civic body and the housing authority to demolish unauthorised extensions of the people resisted.

Another concern of residents is what happens to open spaces. Motilal Nagar has three playgrounds measuring at least eight acres each in Phase 1; a park with a jogging track in Phase 2; and a ground measuring around five acres in the third.

The redevelopment is predicated on these open spaces, where new houses would be built for the existing tenants on some of them. The existing houses would make way for an additional 38,000 apartments which would be sold in the open market through a lottery, according to MHADA.

“We’ve started topographical (land) and social surveys,” Madhu Chavan, Mumbai board chairman at MHADA, told BloombergQuint. After the survey, the authority will prepare a detailed proposal and seek comments. Chavan is hopeful that the agency be able to invite tenders for construction in six months through e-tendering where even international parties could bid.

Accordingly, a joint venture of architects PK Das and Associates and Sandeep Shikre & Associates was appointed as the project management consultant.

Das, in an interview with BloombergQuint, said nearly a quarter of the land will be maintained as open spaces. “The redevelopment will involve total construction area of 4 million square meters,” he said, adding that the area will get a floor-space index of close to 5.5.

FSI is the ratio of total area to the built-up area. A higher FSI means developers will be able to build more on a given plot. And that usually happens by adding floors.

Nearly 60 percent of the houses to be built will be handed over to the economically weaker sections and lower-income groups, according to Das. As many as 20 percent of the housing units built would be allocated for sales to middle-income and higher-income groups, he said.

Not everyone in Motilal Nagar opposed to the redevelopment.

Manisha Sonawane, 45, lives in a four-room house with her husband and two college-going children. The 710-sq-ft house has little furniture and paint from the walls is peeling away. “We don’t have money to expand our house and go vertical,” she said, adding that people built the top floor as the area gets flooded in the monsoon.

“We’ll be happy if redevelopment happens because we’re fed up with the water-logging-problem year after year,” she said.

Salahuddin Khan, a resident of Motilal Nagar Phase 2, is still not convinced.

“So far, MHADA has given nothing in writing to us. We can’t trust them till they present a formal proposal. We’re concerned about what they want to do with the existing commercial establishments,” Khan said, referring to the shops, furniture showrooms and real estate broker offices in the area. “There are many people here whose livelihood depends on these units.”

But the housing authority said the residents’ concerns are unfounded, calling demand for bigger flats is not realistic. “There are certain rules that we have to follow for redevelopment projects. Some people are asking for 2,000-sq-ft carpet area? Is it possible anywhere in the world?” Chavan said, adding that a “few people who are politically inclined” are opposing the project. “I met Motilal Nagar residents a few days ago and explained the project to them. I believe almost all residents are ready to corporate with us.”

That apart, Motilal Nagar also has some 1,600 houses that are encroachments, Das said. The people living there will be rehabilitated as part of the project but under the provisions of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority that allows smaller 300-sq-ft homes.

Town planners said the project’s success lies in its implementation, particularly the use of apartments to be sold. The redevelopment has the potential to benefit more people if they keep prices of saleable flat between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh, Shetty of School of Environment and Architecture. said. “Density of houses should not be more than 350-450 per hectare otherwise it will lead to a resource crunch.”

Watch | PK Das on Motilal Nagar’s redevelopment