A day after a building collapse in Dongri claimed 13 lives, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the government would bring in a law to redevelop dangerous and dilapidated cessed and non-cessed buildings in the city through a cluster policy.
At a high-level meeting convened at the Sahyadri Guest House, the Chief Minister directed officials to carry out a survey of illegal buildings and file cases against errant builders.
An officer who attended the meeting said, “It is important to speed up the process of redevelopment of dangerous and dilapidated buildings. We cannot differentiate dangerous buildings as cessed and non-cessed. Therefore, the CM has called for an ordinance under which all such buildings will be redeveloped by forming a cluster.”
The matter will be brought before the State Cabinet within a week or two. Mr. Fadnavis has also instructed officials to free the redevelopment issue of legal hurdles, except for writ jurisdiction. The additional homes to be built will be a part of the government’s affordable housing for all scheme.
The cluster policy for redevelopment of these buildings can be applied to buildings up to 25 years old. Earlier, only buildings older than 30 years were eligible for redevelopment.
Cessed buildings are those on 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.
When asked if the cluster redevelopment was applicable to dangerous and dilapidated buildings in suburban Mumbai, the officer said, “It is likely. We will take the call before issuing an ordinance.”
Vinod Ghosalkar, president of the Repair and Reconstruction Board of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), who attended the meeting, said, “MHADA will be responsible for redevelopment of these clusters and no outside developer will be brought in. This is also a transition for MHADA from just repairing the buildings to redeveloping them.”
Mumbadevi MLA Amin Patel also attended the meeting. “A minimum area of one acre will be considered for a cluster. MHADA will arrange transit camps for residents of buildings under redevelopment. In case it cannot do so, it will pay the residents’ rent for two years,” he said.