Even as the hoopla around the state’s tie-up with private developers for creating budget homes has come to a naught, a new study attempts to look at policy changes for boosting the affordable housing stock in Mumbai.
The study, by think-tank Observer Research Foundation, will primarily look at increasing the mandate of the state as far as provision of housing is concerned as also the various regulatory reforms required. ‘A free market economy like Singapore has its focus on good quality mass housing, with about 90 per cent of its population living in public housing. We plan to meet influential representatives of various parties and strongly advocate the political advantage to be gained by effectively tackling the problem of affordable housing,” ORS (Mumbai) chairman Sudheendra Kulkarni told a day-long conference on the issue on Saturday.
The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation defines affordable housing as houses ranging from 300 sq ft for the economically weaker sections, 500 sq ft for the lower income groups and 600-1,200 sq ft for the middle income groups.
Also the monthly installments for such homes should not exceed 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the monthly income of buyers, a tall order in Mumbai where both sizes and prices of flats have reached sky-high levels. “It is evident that we cannot rely on market forces to generate affordable housing. The government must intervene effectively,” Kulkarni said,
Reacting to arguments that at a time when its land bank has shrunk to almost nil, MHADA should look at undertaking the SRA schemes to rehouse those living in slum as well as to create additional housing stock, MHADA vice-president Gautam Chatterjee said. “It may be arithmetically feasible for MHADA to take up SRA schemes but the SRA policy, under which private developers offer all kinds of incentives, have corrupted the slum community.”He said the same problem prevailed in the redevelopment of MHADA colonies, where most residents chose private developers over MHADA.
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