The Maharashtra government has announced the prices of rehabilitation flats allotted to 223 police personnel and their legal heirs under the Mumbai BDD Chawl redevelopment project. Eligible beneficiaries will have to pay between Rs 72.25 lakh and Rs 1.48 crore for 500 sq ft homes, considerably more than the Rs 15 lakh rate offered to an earlier category of police residents.
An order issued by the state Home Department on Thursday has fixed the construction cost at Rs 1.48 crore for flats in Worli, Rs 86.30 lakh at NM Joshi Marg and Rs 72.25 lakh in Naigaon. Redevelopment work is underway at all three locations.
The beneficiaries include police personnel and legal heirs who occupied government quarters in the BDD Chawls after January 1, 2011, and were subsequently found eligible for rehabilitation. Ownership of their 500 sq ft flats will be transferred to them after payment of the stipulated amount.
As reported by the Hindustan Times, this group was initially excluded from the ownership benefits extended to police residents who had occupied the quarters before the January 1, 2011 cut-off. Following representations from the affected personnel, the government approved their demand for ownership-based allotment, subject to payment of construction expenses.
Of the 223 beneficiaries, 123 belong to Worli, 84 to Naigaon and 16 to NM Joshi Marg. The government has also directed that the remaining 315 rehabilitation flats be transferred to the Mumbai Commissioner of Police.
The revised rates differ sharply from the policy announced in August 2022. Under that arrangement, police personnel residing in BDD Chawls on or before January 1, 2011, could purchase 500 sq ft rehabilitation homes for Rs 15 lakh. The concession was announced by then Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in the Legislative Assembly and formalised through a Housing Department notification dated August 30, 2022. The original price of Rs 50 lakh was first reduced to Rs 25 lakh and subsequently to Rs 15 lakh.
Shinde had said the benefit would extend to serving and retired personnel, as well as the families and legal heirs of deceased employees. The latest order brings post-2011 occupants into the ownership framework, but at significantly higher, location-based rates.
Source: The Free Press Journal
