Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will lay the foundation stone of the first cluster development scheme outside Mumbai at Kisan Nagar-Jai Bhavani Nagar in Thane on Thursday.
Of the six Urban Renewal Plans (URPs) under the cluster development scheme, Kisan Nagar is the largest one, covering 132.37 ha. All six URPs — Kisan Nagar, Kopri (45.90 ha), Rabodi (35.4 ha), Hajuri (9.24 ha), Tekdi Bangla (4.17 ha) and Lokmanya Nagar (60.51 ha) were cleared by the State government on Tuesday.
The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) had submitted these six URPs to the government for approval, out of of 44 URPs. The total area to be covered under themis 287.59 ha. There will be 1.07 lakh constructions in the area and 4.85 lakh beneficiaries.
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Politically, the decision will give a boost to the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party in Thane. Urban Development Department Minister Eknath Shinde, who is from Thane, will launch the first cluster development project in his constituency.
The scheme was promoted in Thane as a tool to extend secure housing to people living in buildings classified as dangerous and extremely dangerous. There were fears that the scheme, cleared by the previous government, would be delayed in the judicial process. The TMC submitted a social impact assessment report to the Bombay High Court, following which the path for the scheme was cleared.
The Sena had earlier organised a protest march from Thane to Mantralaya demanding the implementation of the project. Mr. Thackeray had participated in it as well.
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“Now that the URPs have been approved, the process to finalise the builder or consortium of builders will begin soon,” said an officer of the Urban Development Department.