The Indian Express   22.08.2012

Rental housing scheme: 3,000 units empty as MMRDA awaits clarity

Around 3,000 tenements for the ambitious rental housing scheme –
which had started off on shaky ground – to check proliferation of slums
in Mumbai metropolitan region are ready after a long delay but are
still unoccupied. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
(MMRDA) implementing the scheme is unsure of how to allocate the houses
to the public and is awaiting more clarity from the state government, in
the form of a formal order.

Earlier this year, a committee chaired by MMRDA Commissioner
Rahul Asthana had made some recommendations to the state government and
suggested that the nature of the project be changed to affordable
housing with just 15 percent of the total stock to be put out on rent.
In a high-level meeting on May 9, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan
accepted most of the recommendations, but a formal order has not been
drafted to this effect.

“The state government hasn’t given formal approval to the
recommendations, based on which we can start allocating the tenements.
We have been routinely following up. No specific reason has been
assigned for the delay,” said Uma Adusumilli, chief of MMRDA’s rental
housing cell.

The MMRDA had taken possession of about 1,500 of the 3,000 houses
in June this year and has been paying maintenance and security ever
since.

A senior MMRDA official said, “Another 1,500 houses are also
ready, but the MMRDA was trying to defer taking possession because then
the authority will have to maintain them. After all, it’s the state’s
money being used for this. But the MMRDA will have to take possession
soon because how long will the developer keep the houses with him?”

Houses constructed so far are part of two rental housing projects in
Thane in Vartak Nagar and Manpada. The project at Vartak Nagar, dubbed
Dosti Vihar, has 1,492 rental tenements in four buildings along with 32
shops, four balwadis, four welfare centres and four cabins for
caretakers. The MMRDA is yet to take possession of these. The Manpada
project, Dosti Imperia, has contributed 1,429 houses in five buildings
to MMRDA’s rental stock.

The rental housing scheme was launched in 2008 to prevent growth
of slums by constructing and renting out 160 square feet houses with
rents ranging from Rs 800 to Rs 1,500. The MMRDA had set a target of
five lakh units in five years.