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Dream house for Dharavi
Dev Dutt on the Rs 5,600-crore Dharavi Development Project, the world's largest slum rehab programme.
Maharashtra is, perhaps, the only state in India to propose and carry out a massive slum rehabilitation programme. The state government has constituted an autonomous and a fully IT-based state-of-the-art Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to implement the scheme.
Describing the SRA Vision, Subhash Dalvi, the Officer on Special Duty, who has been deputed from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to specially plan and implement the Rs 5,600-crore Dharavi Development Project, says, "Although slums are an integral part of any urban metropolis in the developing world - and have sprung up even on Naval land at Colaba in Mumbai - SRA's philosophy and function has always been by the people, for the people and to the people."
As many as 55 per cent of Mumbai's total population live in 2,500 slums. Out of this, 50 slums are on private land, 25 per cent on state government land, 20 per cent on municipal land and the remaining 5 per cent is on Central government and housing board land, Dalvi disclosed.
He said the long-term vision of SRA was, "To make Mumbai slum-free by the year 2015." About 8-10 lakh slum families are staying in hutments in Mumbai. Up till now the slum rehabilitation schemes have been approved for creating about 1.20 lakh new tenements to house 1.20 lakh slum families.
"True, the number of free houses provided so far is quite low. This is mainly because the present slum rehabilitation scheme was not financially attractive to private sector builders and developers. It was even considered unviable in some of the suburbs as the sale rate and sale component were less than Rs 2,000 per sq. ft," Dalvi points out.
The short-term vision of SRA is, "To make Mumbai's pavements and footpaths slum-free by the end of year 2004," Dalvi asserts, adding, "As many as 14,000 dwelling units would be required to clear the footpaths of Mumbai."
The basics of the scheme are:
o Every slum structure existing as on January 1, 1995, or before is eligible for rehabilitation.
o 70 per cent of the eligible slum dwellers in a slum can come together to form a society for implementation of the slum rehabilitation scheme.
o Rehab tenement allotted to a slum dweller cannot be sold for a period of 10 years from the date of allotment. However, it can be transferred to a legal heir with prior permission of CEO (SRA).
o A sum of Rs 20,000 per tenement is recovered from the developer for subsidising the monthly maintenance of the building.
o FSI permissible for a scheme depends upon the number of slum dwellers to be rehabilitated in it. It can even exceed 2.5.
o Plots where slum rehabilitation schemes can be taken up include plots that are notified and categorised as slum.
* If reserved for non-buildable reservation, the plot area should be more than 500 sq. mt and minimum ground coverage of 25 per cent with the slum.
On the Dharavi Development Project, Dalvi says, "It is a dream project that envisages giving 5 to 7 lakh people living in Dharavi their own dream houses." According to Dalvi, the uniqueness of DDP is that it is self-funded; a group of builders and developers will build free of cost houses for all the hutment dwellers of Dharavi on the very land on which their huts are standing today. Extra FSI or transfer of development rights (TDRs) would be given by way of compensation for the money to be invested by the builders. Once the project is completed, say, in seven years, Dharavi aspires to become a world-class township within Mumbai city. It will have 70,000 to 75,000 residential-commercial units with ultra-modern amenities in hygienic conditions. The market price of a hutment in Dharavi skyrocketed from Rs 2 lakh per 400-450 sq. ft for a pucca hutment in 1997 to Rs 12 lakh in 1998. After the completion of the project, one should not be surprised if the market price of a 225 sq. ft unit goes up to Rs 15 lakh.
"Unlike some other projects the Dharavi Development Project will neither be bogged down nor be stranded in legal disputes between the government and contractors. A strong political and administrative will, backed by meticulous legal homework in consultation with IL&FS, prior to global tendering process, will see the successful and timely completion of the project," Dalvi adds.
Dream house for Dharavi
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