The Indian Express            26.11.2013 

Civic body roots for mandatory affordable housing component

Taking inspiration from USA, Canada, UK, France, Spain, Italy and other countries, the BMC has suggested policies which make it mandatory for developers to provide affordable housing as part of their projects.

The BMC has suggested that "inclusionary housing" as a policy be adopted to augment the need for affordable housing. Pegging the current housing deficit at 10 lakh units, the report suggests a policy wherein developers are required to devote a proportion of total floor space to smaller dwelling units.

The median household income is only Rs 20,000 per month, while the lowest price for even a single bedroom public housing unit starts from Rs 14 lakh onwards, the report says. "It is apparent that nearly half of the population is unable to afford a house even of minimum standards," it states.

Data shows that public sector housing has been providing about 7,000 to 8,000 units annually, while private sector supplies about 15,000 units annually to the Middle Income (MIG) and Higher Income groups (HIG), while three lakh housing units are under various stages of approval under slum rehabilitation schemes.

Citing past experience wherein the smaller dwelling units meant for lower income groups did not reach the intended beneficiaries, the civic administration has suggested inclusive housing.

In the current SRA model, existing slumdwellers are accommodated in less than 50 per cent of the slum area making the rehabilitation extremely dense. At present, 41.85 per cent of the population occupies only 8.18 per cent (33.96 sq km) of the total planning area (415.05 sq km). "Post-rehabilitation, the slum population is expected to reduce drastically, so what is required is to ensure a steady supply of affordable housing over a wide area," the report states.

The Indian Express            26.11.2013

Slums ignored in BMC’s new development plan

While over 60 per cent of the city's population lives in slums, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's draft Development Plan (DP) for the next 20 years seems to have left out these areas in its planning process.

Areas and slums falling under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Special Planning Authorities (SPA) such as the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), have been left out of the planning process. Some of the areas which come under SPAs include Dharavi, one of the biggest slum clusters in the city, along with business districts like Oshiwara, Backbay and SEEPZ.

"The notified areas under the special planning areas and MMRDA and other agencies are not under the purview of DP 2014-34. These account for an area of 4,322.79 hectare as per the existing land use. Population and areas under SPAs have been computed and discounted for purpose of analysis and further projection," the report says.

A draft report of the DP (2014-34) has revealed that 63 per cent of Mumbai's housing stock comprises slums, chawls and pavement dwellings and more than 60 per cent Mumbaikars live in houses which are less than 650 sq ft. In its preparatory studies for the DP, the BMC had showed that a majority of its housing options lie in slums (45 per cent), chawls (15 per cent) and on pavements (three per cent).

The report further says only 28 per cent of the housing stock falls under apartments, while nine per cent is public housing, including slum rehabilitation schemes.

The 280-page "preparatory studies" report, jointly drafted by BMC and Group SCE India Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the French consulting firm EGIS Geoplan, was submitted to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan recently. The preparatory studies compares the existing DP (1991-2013) with the actual implementation and suggests future projections.

Raising concerns over the exclusion of slums and its population in the future development plan, Pankaj Joshi, executive director of the Urban Design Research Institute, said: "While slums and the population continue to exert pressure on the city's infrastructure, the BMC has failed to analyse the slums pockets in the DP. There is no strategy which has been recommended to incorporate holistic development of slums and special planning areas in the DP."

He said while the BMC has agreed that a major chunk of the population is involved in informal livelihoods in the analysis, no strategy has been envisaged for the informal employment sector.