BDD chawl redevelopment: HC dismisses pvt firm's plea

The Bombay High Court today dismissed a petition filed by private construction firm ACC India Pvt Ltd, challenging the validity of a Rs 11,000-crore redevelopment project that was awarded to Tata Projects Limited.

A bench of justices RM Borde and VM Deshpande held that the petitioner had failed to prove any illegality in the Maharashtra government and the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) awarding the tender to Tata Projects Ltd for the redevelopment of the BDD chawls in Mumbai.

ACC had claimed in its plea that replies received from the the state and MHADA under the Right to Information Act had revealed that Tata Projects did not meet the requisite eligibility conditions to bid for the redevelopment work.

The bench, however, dismissed the argument.

A detailed judgment of the bench on the plea is likely to be made public later this week.

As per the plea, the BDD chawls were developed by the British in the 1920s as low-cost housing facilities.

There are 207 such units spread over an area of 37 hectares in Worli, NM Joshi Marg, Naigaon and Sewri and more than 12,000 families reside in them.