MHADA to build 2,000 affordable houses in Mumbai

To build about 2,000 affordable houses in Goregaon of Mumbai, the Maharashtra Housing And Area Development Authority (MHADA) plans to utilise nine acres of land, located in front of HyperCITY.

This may well come as a ray of hope, albeit little, for the affordable housing project in the city, as the land can now be used for creating more residential stock. A MHADA official said that they have started the process of floating a scheme to bring this land under development. MHADA plans to build houses for the economically weaker sections, low-income and middle-income groups, a senior MHADA official said.

This stock is expected to be ready for MHADA’s annual lottery by 2014 or 2015, the official added. The concept of affordable housing has been losing steam in Mumbai with MHADA’s land bank rapidly shrinking. The housing board has a large tract of land within Mumbai, but about 1,500 hectares is occupied by its 105 housing colonies. Most of the remainder is encroached upon, leaving MHADA with just about 2 hectares available for development of public housing.

The 9-acre land in question has been a part of MHADA’s land bank for many years. However, it was encroached upon. Earlier this month, the Mumbai suburban district collector’s office cleared the encroachments.