Transit camps far from promised land

Is it better to stay on in a dangerously dilapidated building or accept transit accommodation and spend years, perhaps decades, waiting for the redevelopment of the building?

Many people choose to keep staying under their crumbling roofs, which may collapse under the monsoon rains. These people are skeptical about the timely redevelopment of their homes by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).The people are scared that they will have to spend years, perhaps decades, in transit accommodation. Indeed, there have been cases where people have gone to transit camps with their children, and now their grandchildren are growing up there without prospects of shifting back to their redeveloped buildings.  These stories are true and have spread giving MHADA a bad name. This distrust makes the people reluctant to shift, said Manohar Samant, president of the Federation of Tenants’ Associations.

The transit camp in Sion is called Pratiksha Nagar.

Rajesh Pandav has been waiting here for two years to be shifted to his redeveloped building. His wait may last for many more years. The building in Mazgaon in which Pandav lived was declared dangerously dilapidated two years ago by MHADA after which he was shifted to the transit camp. However, nothing has happened so far. The redevelopment of Pandav’s building ran into difficulties. The new building plan could not accommodate all the original residents in the permissible FSI. Now, Pandav has nothing else to do but wait while his neighbours make rounds of government offices for more FSI. He is reconciling himself to a prolonged stay at Pratiksha Nagar. “I don’t attend the meetings (of the building occupants) any more,” Pandav said.

Standing near the tenement allotted to him at the Cuffe Parade transit camp, Baldev Parmar had a mouthful of abuse for MHADA.

The building he stayed in-the dilapidated Hanuman building in Fort-was demolished last year. The cost of reconstruction is Rs2 crore and Parmar accused MHADA of tardiness in paying its share of the reconstruction costs.

Samant alleged MHADA delays reconstruction of buildings in the city so that the tenants are forced to approach a builder, who would “split the proceeds with some MHADA officials”. The agency denies this. “Most people do not have to spend 20 years in transit camps,” said Vasant Wani, resident executive engineer of MHADA’ Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board. “The people who spend 20 years are those whose buildings cannot be redeveloped. Now, you have to leave some space empty as per rules.” Most people had to spend about three years in transit camps, he said. As another monsoon approaches to test their crumbling roofs, the distrust about MHADA persists.