A month after a building collapse in Dongri claimed 14 lives, the State Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a proposal authorising the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to take over redevelopment of dilapidated cessed buildings that had been delayed, and appointing it the planning authority to redevelop all cessed buildings in the city.
“MHADA can take over the redevelopment of a cessed building which the developer has left midway and is not paying rent to the tenants. At the same time, MHADA can acquire land of the owner and tenants of a dilapidated building who have been served a notice to vacate and pull down the building by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation but failed to submit a proposal for redevelopment within six months,” Housing Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said.
The Cabinet has also directed the Urban Development Department to suggest suitable changes in the Development Control and Promotion Regulation 2034 to promote cluster redevelopment of cessed and neighbouring non-cessed buildings in the city.
Mumbai has around 16,000 cessed buildings with lakhs of tenants, making the issue politically important for the ruling party, with Assembly elections slated to be held in October. A committee of MLAs was formed in 2016 to decide on a policy for redevelopment of cessed and non-cessed buildings. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, before the Dongri incident, had informed the legislature that the government was to come up with a policy.
Cessed buildings are those on which a cess is collected as a repair fund. These buildings were mainly built pre-Independence, and the concept is limited to the island city and not the suburbs. A day after the Dongri building collapse, Mr. Fadnavis had convened a high-level meeting where it was decided to speed up redevelopment of dangerous and dilapidated buildings.
The Cabinet on Wednesday also appointed MHADA as the planning authority to redevelop cessed buildings. It also cleared a proposal under which cessed buildings which have been redeveloped by MHADA or an agency under the housing authority around 30 years ago or more, will give 300 sq.ft. flats to the residents.
Special directions will soon be issued to fix the eligibility and registration of developers for the redevelopment, formation of vigilance committee to supervise the construction work, and opening of escrow account for advance payment of rent by the developer.
