MMRDA plans to increase area of rented flats to 400-sq feet

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) plans to increase the area of the rented flats to 400-sq feet from the existing 200-sq feet under its proposed rental housing scheme and has sought the state government's approval, a senior official said.

"We have sent a proposal to the Urban Development Department, seeking its approval to increase the area of the flats to 400-sq feet from the current 200-sq feet under the Rental Housing Scheme," MMRDA's Metropolitan Commissioner, Ratnakar Gaikwad, told reporters at the sidelines of an event here.

The Authority is confident of receiving the approval shortly, Gaikwad said.

The MMRDA's public-private partnership(PPP) Rental Housing Scheme aims at providing 5-lakh houses at an affordable rents of as low as Rs 800-1,500 per month.

A private developer, undertaking a project under the scheme is allowed to sell three FSI out of the four which he gets for the development in the open market.

If the approval comes through, the number of tenements is expected to come down from 5-lakh, an official said.

"Less number of tenements will be available if the proposals is sanctioned. We feel that if more private developers come forward to undertake the projects more houses could be made available," the official said.

MMRDA has already cleared the construction of 2.5 lakh such houses across 36 locations in the Mumbai Metropolitan region.

"We have received proposals from the developers to build another 1.67-lakh low-rent houses in addition to 5-lakh dwellings as proposed by the authority," the official said.