The city’s archetypal low-cost housing model, its BDD chawls, are set to give way to larger apartments that will be built under either of the two recent redevelopment policies of the state government: the cluster redevelopment scheme or the Dharavi model.

The state government advisory unit, Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU), will soon submit a report on the two viable models for redeveloping the 80-year-old chawls. Kicking off its long-pending plan for redevelopment of the decrepit chawls, spread over 92.82 acres of land, the government will narrow down on one of the two models after reviewing the report.

The 200-odd buildings at Worli, Naigaon, Sewri and NM Joshi Marg that make up the Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) chawls were constructed by the British in the 1920s to house the city’s homeless. However, with few takers for the poorly-ventilated rooms, it was down the years used as a jail for satyagrahis. A total of 16,544 families, including those of 2,900 police constables, now live in the cramped 160-sq ft tenements with common toilets and corridors.

Post redevelopment, all existing residents will be rehoused in larger 300-sq ft homes. With a floor space index of four, the extra houses constructed will either remain with the private developer or be shared with the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), depending on which of the two models is implemented by the government.

Under the cluster redevelopment model, developers who have over 70 per cent consent of tenants in a particular pocket will be allowed to execute the project. While the developer will get to sell a specific number of flats for his profit element, a significant number of these homes will be handed over to MHADA. The MTSU report estimates that implementing the cluster model for BDD chawls will generate a housing stock of 4,900 affordable homes with an average area of 500 sq ft in the heart of Central Mumbai. These flats could be sold at MHADA controlled rates.

... contd.