Earlier this month the state urban development department issued a notification raising the Floor Space Index (FSI) to 2.5 for all LIG colonies of the Maharashtra Area and Housing Development Authority (MHADA). Long anticipating the move, developers had already started inundating residents in every other LIG colony with fabulous offers.
Anticipating huge profits from the increased area developers had promised residents homes almost double the sizes of their existing homes in the new buildings. However the notification states that the society/developers share would be limited to 50 to 70% of the rehabilitation area. Any area over that would have to be shared in the ratio 2:1 between MHADA and the developer. Residents had also expected that with the increased FSI, the cap of 30 sq mts on the area of each house post redevelopment would be removed. However this has been merely increased to 45 sq mts (484 sq ft).
One such society whose redevelopment plans are in limbo is Sahakar Nagar 2 in Chembur which comprises 200 row houses each over half a century old. Over the years, many residents had on the sly expanded their 300 sq ft homes.Recently they decided to go in for self-redevelopment, mutually agreeing that they would each get 1000 sq ft flats in the newly built buildings.
Residents here have already pumped in huge amounts of money in order to go for the self-redevelopment model. According to Dr Vijay Sangole who has his clinic in the area, the project also has evinced interest of corporates like India Bulls and HDFC. The main reason for going in for redevelopment is that the area is low lying and the row houses were badly affected during the deluge two years back. We were almost at the stage of calling for bids but all our calculations have gone wrong. Many people who have increased the area of their homes to up to 1000 sq ft will not agree to live in a 484 sq ft houses as per the new rule, said Sangole.
Of the 104 MHADA colonies spread over 1,500 hectares of precious land, about 80% are LIG colonies.
Other societies like Ramkrishna nagar in Khar whose residents were sitting on incredible offers of up to 175% increase in the flat sizes and Pant Nagar in Ghatkopar that was opting for the self-redevelopment model have also decided to register their objections to the proposals. Our redevelopment will suffer as it will be very difficult to purchase the FSI at a premium plus share the build up area with MHADA. Also the clause that states that the consent of only 70% of residents is required for redevelopment is very dangerous. Unlike SRA scheme, here the residents are legal owners of the property and cannot be forced to go in for redevelopment if they do not wish to, said Raghunath Parab, a resident of the LIG colony at Pant nagar.