Mhada waits for bids to build 6K homes to sell via lotteries

State housing authority Mhada will on Tuesday float a tender which, in the event of a successful outcome, will allow it to construct 6,000 affordable homes and put them up for sale in its lotteries.

The tender is for an 18-acre plot located in Pahadi area in Goregaon. Through the tender, Mhada hopes to find contractors to build houses, which the authority will sell in the open market. The authority's earlier two tries, made in April, to receive a viable bid for the project went in vain.

While some contractors have shown interest this time, the tender hasn't been finalised. And the second extension on the deadline to submit bids comes to an end on May 8.

The housing body's Mumbai board's joint chief officer, Sanjay Bhagwat, said, "We have floated the tender and called for contractors to show interest. We are doing all that is needed to be done."

A senior Mhada official said, "We want to construct high rises so that more homes can be constructed. It isn't that we didn't get responses, but they were from a limited number of firms. So we went ahead with another extension as the rules state that more people should bid for constructing houses."

Out of a total of 6,000 homes, close to 4,000 will be reserved for economically weaker sections and the lower income group.

The remaining homes will be for the middle and high income groups.

Incidentally, the plot of land was stuck in a long legal battle, which Mhada won in the year 2015.

The authority then decided to use it to construct homes. In the last few years , Mhada has been facing a crunch in its housing stock. If these homes come up, the authority will have units to sell in future lotteries.