Stress fund for stuck SRA projects
The Maharashtra State Housing Ministry announced a series of relaxations in its slum redevelopment policy to ensure faster availability of housing for slum dwellers in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
Addressing a web press meet on 9 July 2020, Maharashtra’s Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad said there will be a specific stress fund for stuck SRA projects.
While the state government will infuse Rs.700-1,000 crore, the remaining funds’ requirement will be from SBI. “This stress fund will be used for the completion of stuck projects of SRA,” said Awhad.
“On non-cooperative slum dwellers who stall the projects, the government has ensured that with the help of government machinery under SRA, the authority will ensure slum dwellers vacate the land under development, once the developer has cleared 70% of slums and if facing problem with the remaining non-cooperative slum dwellers,” said Awhad.
Under Ease of Doing Business (EODB), the government has even reduced certain procedures.
For example, a file that would move six tables now will require to go to three officials. Similarly, Annexure II, the list with eligible slum dwellers will now be done by SRA. Earlier, it would require three organizations, including BMC, Collectorate and SRA.
The State government has also decided the rent to be paid to slum dwellers by developers while carrying out a redevelopment project.
In Mumbai up to Bandra, the rent will be Rs.12,000 per month.
It will be Rs.10,000 per month from Bandra to Andheri/Ghatkopar and Rs.8,000 per month beyond it. SRA has given out a total of 1,856 LOIs to various developers for carrying out rehabilitation projects.
Awhad has also announced various premiums related to slum redevelopment projects have been relaxed by way of reductions and deferred payments.
Along with the premium relaxations, the approvals timeline has been drastically reduced at all stages by Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), which is the nodal agency under the Housing Ministry to implement the slum redevelopment scheme.
Stating that the relaxation in various SRA premiums and reduction in approval timeline are targeted to achieve a slum-free Mumbai at the earliest, he added that the new premium structure would also ensure clubbing of SRA projects in the city zones which were stalled owing to non-feasibility factor.
He further stated that the revised timeline of the approvals structure at various stages including LOI would result in more than 50% reduction in timeline compared to the previous timeline practiced by SRA.
Along with the relaxation in premiums and timeline, all SRA projects would be empowered with health centres; authorized committee to relocate religious structures within the project; online approval (auto DCPR) mechanism like MCGM and committed continuity in construction of rehabilitation buildings which can only be stopped by specific high court orders. #housing #urban #accommodation #slum #Maharashtra #yahoo #property /fiinews.com
