Indian Express 23.11.2010
Housing body eyes MMR to push lottery flats
Shalini Nair Tags : Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, MHADA Posted: Tue Nov 23 2010, 05:05 hrs
Mumbai: The much-awaited annual lottery for flats built by the Mumbai board of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) will soon include affordable houses in areas such as Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli and Vasai-Virar.The state government has moved a proposal to amend the MHADA Act of 1976 whereby the jurisdiction of the Mumbai board would be extended to areas outside the 468 sq kms of Mumbai district to include the entire 4,355 sq kms of the Mumbai Metropolitan region (MMR). The Mumbai board would then be able to generate public housing in areas that come under the municipal corporations of Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayander, Ulhasnagar , Bhiwandi-Nizampur and the municipal councils of Alibaug, Kulgaon-Badlapur, Panvel, Pen, Uran, Ambernath Karjat and Khopoli. Presently all these areas fall under MHADA’s Konkan board which also have the task of constructing houses in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts.
Housing department officials said that the amendment is imperative at this juncture since MHADA’s Mumbai board is left with barely two hectares of usable land reserves in Mumbai. Amarjeet Singh Manhas, Mumbai board chairman, confirmed that the authority has moved a proposal to this effect. “Since there is no land left in Mumbai for the board to construct houses on, we need to expand the jurisdiction to the entire MMR. Also, acquiring and purchasing land is much more easier in these areas,” he said. Sources in the state housing department say that if the amendment is approved by the cabinet this week, it would be placed before the winter session of the state assembly that starts on December 1. Another amendment has also been proposed to the MHADA act whereby the housing agency will be allowed to directly collect a repair cess from the BMC. The repair cess is the nominal sum paid by tenants of pre-1960 cessed buildings of the island city. Presently the repair cess is collected by the BMC as part of its property tax and then routed through the state government to MHADA whose Repair and Reconstruction board then uses the money to maintain the dilapidated cessed buildings. “This round-about way has often led to delays in MHADA getting the repair cess; hence it has been proposed that MHADA be allowed to receive the sum directly from the BMC,” said a housing department official.
