Seven slums in the city will be the first in the country to reap the benefits of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme. Another first will be that the novel in-situ concept that has been adopted to rehabilitate some 1,200 families are high density slums of Yerwada area in the city — Mother Teresa Nagar, Yashwant Nagar, Bhat Wasti, Netaji Nagar, Sheela Salve Nagar, Wadar Wasti, and Chandrama Nagar.

With construction slated to begin in about two weeks, the concept is based on the principal of rebuilding only the kuccha homes in the slums and bringing them on par with the pucca dwellings, rather than following the earlier practice of razing the entire slum area and then rebuilding houses.

“A sustained process of housing improvement is only possible with the participation, consent and contribution of the beneficiary to ensure that the assets created are maintained over time. Giving due thought to the community aspects, we have evolved the methodology of this in-situ rehabilitation work project whereby patterns that have evolved during time are preserved,” said Prasanna Desai, architect and urban design consultant, who is giving architectural support to the project.

According to V R Patil, supervisory engineer JNNURM, who has been involved in the project from the beginning, Yerwada will see the pilot project taking shape which may well be replicated in the rest of the country. “Along with Yerwada, the slums at Parvati Taljai too are being similarly rehabilitated. The state government has already received Rs 140 crore from the Centre, which is about 25 per cent of the total sum promised,” said Patil.

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