| Union textile minister Shankersinh Vaghela today cleared the decks for the commercial exploitation of seven textile mills out of the 25 owned by the National Textile Corproration (NTC) in Mumbai city.
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| The plan also includes providing nearly 3000 families (mostly mill workers) resident on this land with free houses admeasuring 225 square feet each.
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| The decision was announced following a meeting Vaghela held with Maharashtra chief minsiter Sushilkumar Shinde at Mantralaya. NTC currently has nearly 275 acres of prime mill land available at its disposal in the central district of the city that was the erstwhile textile headquarters of the state.
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| The meeting was also able to resolve the earlier issues regarding the quantum of land that would be shared between NTC, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).
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| While the committee appointed by the state government to regulate the development plans of private and government run mills had formerly cleared several such development plans of private mill owners who were asked to share only 'vacant' (not built up space) within their mill premises, some voices in the committee insisted that NTC should share the entire available land (vacant and built up) in three equal portions with BMC and MHADA.
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| Now, this has been resolved and only the vacant space available on the NTC mill land premises (seven mills) would be shared in proportion of 1/3 amongst the three.
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| In addition to the free houses Vaghela has also indicated that he would favorably consider allocating the New Hindu Textile mill land (located a Shivaji Park) to the state for utilisation as a complement to the nearby located tomb of BR Ambedkar (the father of the Indian constitution).
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| According to a senior government official, the NTC would be allowed to aggregate the total land space it has to share with the government and provide one single mill property instead of allocating one third in each of the seven mills that have now been cleared for redevelopment.
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| The six other mills (apart from New Hindu) are the Kohinoor mill no 3, India United M ill nos 1, 2 and 3, Mumbai Textile Mill and the Elphinstone Mill.
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| The realty sector in central Mumbai is expected to witness a decline in prices especially in the tardeo, worli and other central Mumbai regions with several more such mills being redeveloped into residential complexes.
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| The state government has clarified that contrary to fears being expressed by non-governmental agencies about the pressures on civic infrastructure that would be imposed through rampant development projects, the fact that the development control rules regulating such land redevelopment would ensure that adequate open spaces have to be maintained.
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| However, the official conceedes that vertical development appears to be the only way open spaces would become availabel once redevelopment is complete.
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| Regulation 58 of the development control rules in force since March 1991, allows the redevelopment of sick and closed cotton textile mills on condition that one third of the land is given to the BMC for public amenities another one third to the MHADA and for housing. The remaining lands could be developed by the owner for residential and commercial uses as may be permissible under the DC regulation in force.
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| The DC regulation seeks in this manner to generate open spaces and public houses for the city. Earlier such redevelopment occurred in a piece meal and haphazard manner on a totally commercial basis, without any portion of the land becoming available either for low income housing or for public amenities. |
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