Around 56 buildings in Mumbai that were declared dangerous and had their redevelopment stuck have got relief with the President of India signing the bill amending the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development (MHADA) Act 1976 paving the way for their redevelopment, said Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on December 2.
The President signed the amendments in the MHADA Act 1976, giving preference to the owner or the tenants of a residential building to submit a proposal for redevelopment once it is categorised by the civic body as dangerous for living. Fadnavis said if the residents or owner fail to submit any proposal for its redevelopment, the MHADA has now been empowered to take the project into its hands for the same.
According to the amendment, MHADA will be able to acquire disputed redevelopment projects of cess buildings. Until now, the landlord was the owner of the land where the building stands, and MHADA was only the approving authority for repair and redevelopment. However, now MHADA will be able to take over projects where there are disputes. In Mumbai, thousands of homeowners are residing in transit camps of MHADA owing to stalled redevelopment.
Pre-monsoon survey of 2022 by the MHADA revealed there being 21 buildings identified to be ‘extremely dangerous, and that people residing in these buildings should vacate. These 21 buildings are more than 80 years old. In all, there are more than 13,000 dilapidated buildings in the city.
Every year before the monsoon, the state housing authority carries out a pre-monsoon audit, and based on the outcome, notices to vacate are issued to residents of these ‘dangerous’ buildings. The residents are given free transit tenements built by MHADA.
Meanwhile, apart from the list issued by MHADA, the Mumbai Civic Body also known as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), issued a list of 337 residential buildings in the city of Mumbai as dangerous in the last week of April 2022.
