Mumbai Housing Authority To Redevelop City’s Red-Light District Kamathipura

Mumbai’s housing authority will redevelop Kamathipura, the city’s largest red-light district, as another crumbling neighbourhood from Indian financial capital’s colonial past goes for a makeover.

Jitendra Awhad, the state housing minister, at a meeting with officials of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, asked the agency to take up the project under the cluster redevelopment scheme, according to a media statement. He asked the authority’s Mumbai Building Repair & Reconstruction Board to come up with a detailed proposal at the earliest and initiate the survey to determine eligibility of tenants.

Awhad asked the board to design the proposal on the lines of ongoing Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment by the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust. Kamathipura joins a growing list of chawls and slums that will make way for apartment blocks, resettlement colonies and office buildings.

Located in South Central Mumbai, Kamathipura is spread over 40 acres, equivalent of 22 football fields, with 1,000 buildings. Of these, nearly 700 structures and 40 chawls are in an extremely-dangerous condition. Most of the tenements are between 50 and 170 square feet.

The area takes its name after Kamathi, or labourers in local dialect, as migrant workers who came to Mumbai in the colonial era in search of employment made it their home. Over time, brothels cropped up and Kamathipura developed into a red-light district.

Two years ago, the city’s housing authority asked the residents and landlords to appoint a private developer to redevelop the area. As they failed, MHADA decided to take it up.

“Due to the stigma attached to the area, it would have been very difficult for any developer to take up the project,” said Pankaj Kapoor, managing director at Liases Foras, a real estate data analytics and research firm. “Also, given the current market conditions, no developer has the bandwidth to take up such a massive project. It is a good move by MHADA.”

Kapoor said more state-owned agencies need to come forward to take up such projects to help create affordable housing. “Every area undergoes transformation and soon Kamathipura will also see the change in its image. If the price points are attractive, people will look at buying there.”

According to Liases Foras, the area commands between Rs 22,000 and Rs 27,000 per square feet of carpet area for residential projects.

It’s a “bold move of the housing minister”, said Nayan Shah, president of developers’ lobby CREDAI-MCHI. “The whole world will be keeping an eye on its progress. And as MHADA is taking up this project it will also help in creation of surplus affordable housing.”