Mumbai: Why is supply of flats for low and middle income groups so poor? | Mumbai News – Times of India

In August this year, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, better known as Mhada, announced the allotment of 4,082 flats in Mumbai. It had received over 1.2 lakh applications for the flats. So barely 3.5% of the applicants made the cut.
The statistic pretty much exemplifies the demand-supply ratio for public housing in the metropolis. Mhada which was constituted in December 1977 with the mandate of providing affordable housing to ordinary citizens, has in the 50-odd years since its inception built and handed over a mere 2.5 lakh affordable homes in Mumbai and seven lakh across the state.
The agency has perennially struggled to keep up with the demand for low- and middle-income flats despite the huge swathes of land at its disposal. Architect-town planner and activist P K Das had obtained details of the plots vested with Mhada by the government using the Right to Information Act-they add up to over 1,600 hectares across the city, some of the blocks running into over 50 hectares (see graphic).
With such resources at its disposal, why is Mhada unable to generate more housing stock? Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who recently spoke on shortage of affordable housing stock in the city, is among influential politicians who have reminded the Authority of its inability to meet Mumbai’s growing needs. Das, who has collaborated with it in the past, says Mhada is unable to keep up as it lacks both vision and an organisation that can manage large projects. “Rather it gives out work to private agencies who do not create enough supply,” he said.
“There is also lack of political will,” said a source, adding unless the housing minister is proactive and carries clout, projects are bound to stagnate. Former housing minister Jitendra Awhad points to the lack of continuity and consistency in execution between governments. He said he cleared a file for mass affordable housing on 200 acres at Shil Phata between Kalyan and Raigad, but “after our government fell I do not know where the file got lost. This prime land abutting an arterial road has now been taken over by the land mafia.”
The tragedy is that with the land available to it, Mhada can generate enough stock to meet at least 50% of a slum-ridden Mumbai’s pent-up demand for affordable housing. “By redevelopment of its layouts with floor space index (FSI) 3, and if the government allows additional FSI of 1, which would make it FSI 4, it is possible to build more than 5 lakh affordable housing units. And this is after providing 1.7 lakh rehabilitation units for the existing 850,000 population which lives on some of the land as tenants or slum dwellers,” said Das. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, for one, estimates a shortfall of 10 lakh affordable housing units in the city.
Change of fortune?
The man currently at the helm of Mhada, Sanjeev Jaiswal, is unfazed by all the criticism. He says he won’t let the agency’s past record come in the way of his ambitious plans. As vice-president and chief executive officer, he has targeted two lakh houses to be built in the next four years. The target seems lofty but Jaiswal says he’s already kickstarted a few big projects. To start with, he has moved a proposal to take over 47 acres at Siddharth Nagar (the infamous Patra Chawl land), a Mhada layout, which a builder fraudulently sold to nine other builders.
“We have proposed that Mhada buy back the vacant plots and those on which buildings have already been constructed be given to those housing societies. This is as per recommendations of the Johny Joseph and Deshmukh committee. Once the government gives the go-ahead we shall take back the plots and construct affordable housing on it,” he said.
Among ongoing projects, Mhada has taken up redevelopment of the BDD chawls at Worli, Naigaum and N M Joshi Marg where it will provide 500 sq feet flats to 15,000 tenants who presently live in 160 sq feet homes. The first tower with 300 flats is proposed to be ready by April 2024. The project is expected to generate an additional 10 million sq feet which the authority hopes to sell in the market to finance the entire redevelopment of BDD chawls.
Jaiswal said the Authority is also insisting on surplus FSI-sharing with housing societies located on Mhada layouts that are opting for redevelopment. “We have moved proposals for the redevelopment of three layouts at Bandra Reclamation, Adarsh Nagar and Abhyudaya Nagar,” he said.
Recent amendments to the Mhada Act, said Jaiswal, enables the Authority to carry out forcible acquisition and take up redevelopment of cessed buildings in the island city. “We have already issued notices to 1,000 cessed buildings. There are over 30,000 cessed buildings in the island city. If the landlord or the tenants fail to come to a decision in the stipulated time we shall take over and redevelop the buildings,” said Jaiswal.