Mumbai plays role model for Delhi slum rehabilitation scheme

Khanna,along with Vijay Risbud,a consultant with the Delhi Development Authority (DDA),visited Mumbai recently and held extensive discussions with the Maharashtra government’s Slum Rehabilitation Authority officials on issues like rehabilitation,slum prevention and the use of prefabricated technologies in construction to provide alternative housing options.

“The Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) recognises the need to imbibe the best practices from a project that has done well in another part of the country,or the world,” Ranjan Mukherjee,Officer on Special Duty to the L-G,said. “To this end,he met Maharashtra government officials to discuss how they went about implementing their in-situ slum rehabilitation projects.

“He also visited various sites in Mumbai where projects have been successfully implemented.”

In-situ rehabilitation means reconstructing slums in areas they exist,without moving the residents.

According to DDA officials,a few days after Khanna’s visit,the land agency,headed by the L-G,awarded the contract for the Capital’s pilot in-situ slum rehabilitation project to Raheja Developers. The real estate firm is expected to finish construction work at Kathputli Colony to rehabilitate 2,800 families by March 2012.

‘Totally market-driven scheme’
In a recent meeting at Raj Niwas,the DDA made an extensive presentation outlining the highlights of Khanna’s visit. According to the presentation — Newsline has a copy of it — one of the salient features of Mumbai’s projects that particularly impressed Khanna was the fact that “no financial involvement is required of the government,thus it is totally a market forces-driven scheme”.

A small part of the presentation also focusses on the creation of transit camps to temporarily accommodate the slum residents during the construction of the project.

“Raheja Developers will be required to temporarily accommodate inhabitants of the Kathputli Colony at a location around two kilometres from the slum,” a senior DDA official said. “Studying how Mumbai managed to carry out such a large-scale temporary accommodation procedure will be helpful to the developer.”

The idea of going vertical is also based on the Mumbai model,the official said. “The one thing,however,that we are not keen to follow in Delhi is Mumbai’s Transferred Development Rights model.”

As per this model,which has invited a lot of criticism,if the density of the slum in question exceeds vertical limit of the project,the builder is issued transferred development rights that permit him to carry out additional construction anywhere north of the project.

“The L-G was also very impressed by the extensive use of prefab technology in Maharashtra,” Mukherjee said.

Prefabricated houses are manufactured in standard sizes but off the site. They are later transported to the location and assembled.

“The most important benefit of prefabricated technology in case of mass housing projects is it speeds up the entire process,” the DDA official said. “According to the presentation,there are other benefits of this technology as well,such as reduction of pollution at the construction site,and energy efficiency,among others.”

The DDA plans to construct nearly 50,000 prefabricated houses over the next four years,according to officials.