Rental hsg altered to make scheme viable Carpet Area Of Tenements Offered To Be Increased From 160 To 300 Sq Ft

Mumbai: The state government has decided to introduce major changes in its ambitious rental housing scheme. 

    At a meeting presided over by CM Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday, government officials agreed on the need to alter the scheme, which is yet to take off in a big way. The move came after a report by a panel headed by metropolitan commissioner Rahul Asthana to review the scheme's existing framework and suggest changes. 

    It has now been decided to increase the carpet area of tenements offered under rental housing from the existing 160 sq ft to 300 sq ft. This change was mainly driven by an observation that the tenement density would be in the range of 2,000 per hectare. 

    Assuming that a family of five resides in each tenement, the population density for each scheme would come to 10,000 per hectare. However, the decision to increase carpet area won't be applicable to 41 rental housing projects, where locational clearance has been granted. 

    Since the scheme was conceptualized five years ago, work on only 17 projects involving 38,000 tenements has begun under the existing framework. The state had projected that about 5 lakh tenements would be ready for occupation by 2012. 

    Based on the committee's findings, the government could decide to allot 50% of the housing stock generated on outright sale (on hire and purchase basis) to citizens under a lottery system. Of the remaining stock, 25% could be sold to urban local bodies, which could then decide whether to let these out or allot to PAPs, staff, whereas the remaining 25% stock could be made available to government agencies like the police and education department for their staff.

    Though the MMRDA is keen to be the nodal agency for the outright sale component, Chavan prefers Mhada. He said a final decision on all aspects would be taken in a week. 

Team to study FSI, incentive T he CM has asked a team of officials to submit a report on the FSI and incentive component which could be offered under the rental housing scheme. While the existing policy offers a uniform FSI of 4, builders had demanded lowering of total FSI component and increase in incentive component in some locations to make the scheme viable. TNN