Sanjeev Jaiswal, IAS, the vice president and chief executive officer of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), has instructed officials to expedite 17 slum rehabilitation projects that are being carried out in partnership with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA). Jaiswal underlined the necessity of concerted efforts to confirm slum dweller eligibility, secure administrative permissions, and expedite the tendering process, according to an MHADA press release that ANI reported.
To revive stalled slum redevelopment projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, MHADA and SRA are jointly overseeing these 17 projects. Eight of these projects have already been withdrawn from the original developers under Section 13(2) of the Slum Rehabilitation Act. These include 12 projects in Goregaon, two in Bandra, five in Kurla, and two in Borivali/Dahisar. Additionally, feasibility assessments are ongoing for five more projects, all of which are located on MHADA-owned land.
With these redevelopment projects, MHADA hopes to create about 25,000 new housing units. Additionally, Jaiswal has directed officials to remove ineligible slum dwellers as quickly as possible. 14,000 slum inhabitants are included in the major regeneration project, Malvani Malad. Officials have been instructed to perform biometric surveys of every resident and hire more staff to speed up the procedure in order to make it more advanced.
Furthermore, urgent measures have been mandated to ensure proper access roads to project sites. A structured timeline has been set for conducting biometric surveys of slum dwellers on MHADA-owned land to streamline the redevelopment process.
Over the next two years, the Maharashtra government intends to build about 100,000 homes under MHADA, reaffirming its commitment to affordable housing. Speaking at the opening of a computerised draw for 3,662 apartments in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, and Solapur under various MHADA programs, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde declared that a new state housing strategy would be implemented shortly.
Shinde emphasised that working women, senior persons, students, and regular citizens will all have their demands met by the new program. With 71,642 applications filed, the sale of these 3,662 apartments has received an enormous response, demonstrating the public’s confidence in MHADA. In order to guarantee that successful applicants got their apartments as soon as possible, he promised that quality and transparency would be upheld.
Source: mid-day
