MUMBAI: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will redevelop a roughly 75-acre slum sprawl, Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar, located off Eastern Express Highway in Ghatkopar as part of its plan to extend the Eastern Freeway to Thane. A part of the extended alignment will pass through Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar for which MMRDA will have to acquire the slum land.
This is the first time that the MMRDA will venture into a slum redevelopment project. In the past, it had executed a rental housing project in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region by granting high floor space index to builders. The housing stock was then handed to project-affected people (PAPs).
Official sources said, “The CEO of Slum Rehabilitation Authority presented a proposal to jointly revamp Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar with MMRDA. The execution of this project will help MMRDA acquire the land free of cost for extension of the Freeway.”
The proposal was placed before the authority meeting held at Nagpur under the chairmanship of CM Eknath Shinde on December 12.
MMRDA said it will rehabilitate 16,575 slumdwellers. Moreover, it will be able to get 5,000 more tenements for PAPs of various projects.
MMRDA estimates that it will earn Rs 1,073 crore from the sale component of residential tenements. However, it will be able to earn Rs 2,918 crore if the sale component is sold to a private developer who will then build and sell his housing stock in the market.
The deal will also be financially lucrative, said officials, for the development agency which is looking at various options to shore up revenues. MMRDA is facing a cash crunch considering the enormous amount it is going to spend on infrastructure projects this decade. The cumulative cost of 10 Metro projects, excluding the underground Metro-III (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) and Metro I (Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar) is Rs 75,000 crore. It has sought 10% of funds from the Centre and another 25% from the BMC for execution of various Metro projects.
Apart from monetising its assets, MMRDA has also appointed SBI Capital Markets to raise loans. However, it needs a regular stream of funds to execute major projects. MMRDA has earmarked expenditure of Rs 28,705 crore on various infrastructure projects, including Metro corridors, Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, Versova-Vasai sea bridge, and underground road stretches between Eastern Freeway and Marine Drive, in 2023-24.
