dna exclusive: After long wait, 7K lucky ones to see their MHADA plots marked out

After a wait of 20 years, it’s a windfall for close to 7,000 individuals.

Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) will start the allotment process of plots in the western suburbs for prices ranging from Rs3,300 to Rs1,530 per square feet. In the open market, the prices in the western suburbs is above to Rs5,000 psf.

“As land reservation, Floor Space Index available and environment issues are there, we can say that the value will be anywhere between Rs3,500 and Rs5,000 per square feet on FSI cost,” said Pankaj Kapoor, founder and managing director of Liases Foras, a real estate research agency.

Lottery draw for the plots was conducted in the year 1993-94 and over 12,000 plots were put up for sale. The beneficiaries were from the economically weaker section, low income group and high Income Group.

The sizes of the plots varied from 21 to 40 square metres and were in Malwani, Gorai and Sector 8-9 in Charkop. The prices of these plots, according to 1993-94 standards, were relatively high.

However, compared to present day prices, they are less than a month’s salary of an average Mumbaikar. The price ranges from Rs4,000 to Rs31,000.

The housing component was part of the World Bank- funded Bombay Urban Development Project, wherein construction and finance of around 85,000 residential, commercial and industrial plots were to be taken care of by the financial agency. A decade later, in May 2002, allotment of 6,750 to 7,000 plots were hit by the green hurdle because all plots fell within the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ). But when the need came to revisit CRZ, the housing body realised that it was missing from its records and had to be “borrowed” from the state forest department.

Finally, in June 2013, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority gave its nod to MHADA, clearing the plots from the ambit of the green clearance. “A formal approval from the high court is pending. That should be coming in the coming weeks,” said NK Sudhanshu, chief officer of MHADA. The high court nod is required because of an order on the conservation of mangroves which has been affecting the allotment process.

“The winners will have to pay an annual interest of 16.5% on the balance amount,” said Sudhanshu. Almost all beneficiaries are yet to make final payment, which means they will have to pay more as interest. Those who haven’t paid a rupee will have to pay anything between Rs84,836 and Rs6,57,476 depending on the area and the price of the plot.