MHADA targets to build 12,000 affordable homes by 2020 in city

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) had set a target of 12,000 affordable homes by 2020 within Mumbai limits. In order to meet this target, the authority has planned to float a tender next week for approximately 5,000 homes to be built in a period of two years in Goregaon's Pahadi area. The remaining homes will be built on the available mill land, and the other slum redevelopment projects being carried out by MHADA.

Bhushan Desai, Resident Executive Engineer of MHADA's Mumbai board, confirming the target of 12,000 homes said, "We have set the target that by 2020 we will have 12,000 affordable homes in Mumbai. These homes will be sold via lottery to the common man — the procedure that we have been following for all these years. The authority has identified land parcels, which include mill land and other places."

After his appointment as the vice president for MHADA, Milind Mahishkar has held several meetings emphasising the need for the authority to have a bank of affordable homes.

Another senior officer of MHADA talking about the tenders to be floated for Goregaon said, "The 18-acre plot in Goregaon's Pahadi area was stuck in litigation for years. We have decided to float a tender for construction of some 5,000 homes by next week. This will add to the total number of affordable homes in the city."

This year the lottery for 819 homes will be held on Friday. The number of homes and their prices already created a major controversy when the most expensive home in the lottery — one in Lower Parel — was priced at Rs 1.92 crore.

The MHADA lottery also received flak from the common public because there were only eight homes in the Economically Weaker Section, which is the lowest so far.

"After we get the affordable homes then we will have a bigger lottery in the coming years and that will solve the problem to a great extent," added the official.

NUMBER OF HOMES

2018
4,460

2019
3,476

2020
4,144