MMRDA's rehab plan to cost Rs 1,480 cr

Nearly 15 of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) and Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP) rehabilitation and resettlement sites in the city are lying vacant, not withstanding the fact that a number of slums that were meant to be rehabilitated were inundated by the recent floods in the city.

Of the total 31 rehabilitation sites, only 16 are occupied with 20,000 tenements being in use. The rest 33,000 flats, are yet to be allotted.

Under the rehabilitation and resettlement (R & R) plan, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had constructed 53,000 tenements in and around the city, to rehabilitate people affected by the MUTP-MUIP road widening. The total investment in the plan is Rs 1480 crore.

It includes the cost for construction of building, the money paid to the resettlers (Rs 20,000 per family) and shifting charges (Rs 300 per family). Each tenement is 225 sq feet, with basic facilities such as toilets, bathrooms and kitchens. The electricity, water supply and other basic amenities are being offered free of cost.

Allotments can be completed only by the middle of next year said MMRDA officials. "The process of resettlement is on, and we expect all the tenements to be occupied by the middle of next year," said the MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar.

Sites like Mankhurd (SV Patel Road), Mahul, Vashi Naka, Majas, Vadala, Antop Hill have been resettled. Till now, around 20,000 tenements have been occupied by more than one lakh people. Mankhurd has a capacity of 10,000 families, but so far only 4,500 flats have been allotted. Likewise, there are other sites too, which are only partially occupied.

The 16 sites which are completely vacant and have not been occupied till now include Nesco, Ajgaonkar and Nirlon. These sites still do not have water and power supplies.

The supplies will be only be available by September this year, said Kawathkar. Looks like Mumbai's slumdwellers will have to endure another wet monsoon before they can hope to move into the new flats, courtsey the MMRDA.

The resettlement programme has saved lives, feel many of the people who have moved into the new houses.

"Had we been in the Tata Nagar area, this year we would have drowned definitely ," said Shanta Ram, who moved to Mankhurd in March this year. "I like it here. We did not have such water and electric supply earlier. We had lot of pollution there. It's good here," said 9 year-old Sagar Vaidya.

However, the shopkeepers on the ground floors in Majas, complain of their businesses not being profitable any more. "We are not earning like before. The shops are inside the complex and not on the main road. So, we get fewer customers," a stationery shop owner said.

"We don't have any water facility on the ground floor. So, for a hotel like ours, it does not work out. We have to go elsewhere to get water for our business," said a dhaba owner.