Builders seek viable govt policy for redevelopment

The Builders Association of India (BAI) has urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to intervene and provide necessary directions to authorities to audit current redevelopment policy to clear deadlock in Mhada properties that needs to be re-done.

In a letter to Chavan, BAI has observed that redevelopment projects in all Mhada layouts have come to a grinding halt and no proposal under the new policy has come up since September 2010, as proposals under the changed policy are not at commercially viable and have resulted in huge revenue losses to the state housing authority, BAI said. "Considering these facts, there is an urgent need to change the 2:1 ratio and adopt a premium basis policy as per the provisions of the DC Regulation 33(5)2 -c-(ii) for redevelopment of Mhada colonies and generate finance for creating more affordable housing stock as required," BAI said in a letter to Chavan.

BAI general treasurer Anand J Gupta in the said the subject of redevelopment has assumed significance because the majority of buildings owned by cooperative housing societies are old and uninhabitable. Among these are Mhada's 56 colonies comprising 3,701 buildings accommodating 1,11,659 tenements.