MHADA to provide transit accommodations in South Mumbai

Here's some good news for residents staying in dilapidated cessed buildings of MHADA in South Mumbai and weren't willing to vacate them fearing that they have to shift in transit camps in far-off places. Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA)'s Mumbai Repair and Reconstruction Board has stated that within a month or two they will have possession of 1,875 transit accommodation in Lower Parel.

Most of these will be coming as part of the tenements that builders have to give MHADA after redeveloping mill lands.

There are more than 16,000 cessed buildings that belong to MHADA, and most of them are in South Mumbai. Of these, more than 8,000 need urgent repairs, while 3,000 are in a miserable condition. These buildings are in South Mumbai and have lakhs of residents staying in them. There have been several incidents in the past where there have been instances of buildings crashing during the monsoon.

MHADA comes out with a list of dangerous buildings before monsoons. These are all cessed buildings and tenants of these buildings are then asked to vacate the dilapidated and dangerous apartments and move into transit camps. However, not many residents wish to move because they do not wish to go very far from their existing place of residence.

However, the repair board chairman, Vinod Ghosalkar, stated that he carried out a visit last week and found out that at two places in Lower Parel, where earlier stood mills, the developers developing these mill land will be handing them over tenements which can be used as transit camps. "At two different mills that are being redeveloped, we will get 243 tenements at one mill, while at the other mill we will get possession of 1,632 tenements. They are almost constructed and in a month or two we will have possession of these tenements."

Ghosalkar further said that these tenements will be used for providing temporary transit accommodation to the residents of the dilapidated buildings located in South Mumbai.

Last year, MRRB came out with a list of buildings that they declared unsafe. A total of seven buildings were declared as most dangerous. Six of the seven buildings in the previous year's list were interestingly carried forward from the 2017 list. This year because of elections the list will be delayed too as most officials who are assigned the work to make the list were busy on election duty.

FACT FILE

• MHADA’s Mumbai Repair and Reconstruction Board has stated that within a month or two they will have possession of 1,875 transit accommodation in Lower Parel
   
• There are more than 16,000 cessed buildings that belong to MHADA
   
• These buildings are in South Mumbai and have lakhs of residents staying in them