Om Namo Sujalam Sufalam Society is a slum colony in Santacruz East with approximately 1,000 tenements, including residential and commercial units. The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has issued a tender asking for bids for its rehabilitation. The colony’s redevelopment efforts began at least 39 years ago, but they were put on hold because of a disagreement between the builders, their lack of motivation, and the termination of a previous contract.
Situated right next to the Western Express Highway and close to the Bandra Kurla Complex commercial district, the land parcel occupied by the colony measures 21,882.15 square metres (sq mt) – 16,072.07 sq mt is covered by tenements while the balance of 5,810.08 sq mt is open land. The tender states that the entire built-up area of the redeveloped structure can be four times the plot area.
The colony contains 128 apartments spread across two buildings built by the slum inhabitants themselves in the late 1990s, together with 697 residential, 27 commercial, and 15 industrial tenements. In addition, it contains one community hall, eight social facilities, four welfare centres, four balwadis, and Nien society offices.
The owners of all 990 structures would need to be rehabilitated by the new developer, who would be selected three days after the bidding ends on December 20. However, a senior SRA official stated that since the SRA itself has put out the bid, it would not need to get approval from the majority of tenement owners.
In 1985, the slum colony’s residents decided to reconstruct, and they started searching for a developer to carry out the project. After more than ten years without finding one, 128 tenement owners used the self-development mode in the 1990s to construct two buildings on their initiative, leaving the other tenements undisturbed. Litigation followed when two firms, Susme Builders and J G firms, became involved in the reconstruction project. The Supreme Court dismissed both businesses from the project in 2018 and ordered the SRA to submit a bid with a two-year project completion deadline.
As a result, the SRA put out a bid for a redevelopment project for the first time in 2018. However, no one was interested because the ₹200-crore bank guarantee was deemed excessively high. A joint venture between DB Realty and Keystone Realtors was given the rehabilitation project that same year after the guarantee was later changed to Rs 20 crore. However, because the firm had not started the project, the award was revoked after the epidemic.
The SRA issued a new tender in June 2022, but no bidders were found. It subsequently went to court to request an extension, arguing that the two-year project timetable was unrealistic. The locals subsequently petitioned the supreme court with the same argument, despite the SRA’s petition being denied. The court granted their plea in October of this year, extending the timeframe to 46 months.
As a result, rather than the previous 24 months, the latest tender’s deadline is 46 months. Only developers who have completed projects valued at Rs 200 crore or more are eligible to participate, and the bank guarantee has also been retained at Rs 20 crore.
Source: Hindustan Times
