20-yr-old hsg plan for slumdwellers stuck in red tape

Mumbai: A nearly two-decadeold plan to provide free tenements to 60 lakh slumdwellers in the metropolis has failed to take-off thanks to procedural wrangles, indecisiveness over grant of additional floor space index and stringent coastal regulation zone rules. 

    "We drafted the scheme in 1995. A special purpose vehicle was set up to complete slum projects on top priority, but till now only 77,000 families have been provided with tenements; nearly 3.12 lakh units are still in the pipeline. The state housing department should take a fresh look at the rules, amend them and ensure all schemes are approved or completed in a timebound manner," a senior bureaucrat said. 
    The bureaucrat said that the Centre should reconsider slum redevelopment schemes in the CRZ-II area at the earliest so that all the pending projects are taken up on top priority. 
    "We have suggested that the slums in CRZ-II areas be allowed FSI on a par with schemes in non-CRZ areas. Otherwise, we will have to abandon the redevelopment schemes in CRZ-II areas," he said. 
    The bureaucrat said there are 292 slums in CRZ-II areas with 17 lakh residing there. These slums are being redeveloped as per the development control rules framed by the BMC and the Maharashtra Slum Areas Improvement, Clearance And Redevelopment Act. "Slum redevelopment schemes in CRZ-II areas get 0.33 and 0.25 incentive FSIs in the island city and the suburbs respectively, taking the total FSI in city to 1.67 and suburbs to 1.25. Owing to insufficient FSI incentive, most schemes in CRZ-II areas are stuck. We have taken it up with the ministry of forest and environment," he said. 
    "Our redevelopment of slums on reserved plots policy has been stayed by the high court following a PIL. We have submitted our contention and justified the policy. If the court accepts our contention, then we expect that quite a large number of schemes will be approved,'' he said. 
    The bureaucrat also said 219 schemes—Mhada's 94 and BMC's 125—involving a slum population of 10 lakh are in a limbo due to the two agency's non-cooperation.