Mumbai realtor HDIL to resettle the affected over next 14 days; hope for stalled project in limbo for 18 months.
Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), the Mumbai-based realtor which is undertaking the biggest slum rehabilitation project in the heart of the city, to relocate 85,000 families for development of Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), will get approval for shifting close to 700 families over the next fortnight.
“In the next two weeks, we will be able to get the final clearance on eligibility. We need to first resettle these 45 families ,who are basically affected due to the Sahar elevated road. It will take another 15 days to complete the allotment for around 700 slum dwellers,” a senior official from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) said.
At present, HDIL has received approval to relocate only 45 families, he said.
As part of Phase-I, HDIL's deadline to shift the families (to the Kurla land parcel) was September 2009 and 700 families had to be rehabilitated. Hyderabad-based GVK is the lead developer of the MIAL project, in a limbo for the past one and a half years.
At first the project was delayed by four months, as the developer delayed the completion of rehabilitation units at Kurla, followed by the municipal corporation’s delay in providing water connection approvals.
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Later came the hurdle of eligibility of slum dwellers inhabiting the area. Finally, this January, MMRDA had brought in the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, which works with slum dwellers, to reassess the eligibility issue. The government had earlier issued a notification that the cutoff date in this regard would be calendar year 2000, and any individual inhabiting after that date would not be eligible for rehabilitation.
When the announcement came from HDIL's stable that it had received permission to move families, the street reacted positively. The share price went up 4.9 per cent.
After the relocation, land will be cleared for the proposed Sahar Elevated Road, connecting the international airport to the Western Express Highway. During relocation under phase-I, families from Bamanpada and Ambedkar Nagar will be shifted. HDIL has officially sold transfer of development rights (TDR) of 11-12 msft.
HDIL has constructed the rehab units on a 40-acre site for Phase I. A commercial project is also being developed on this site, as part of revenue generation to compensate for the project expenditure.
The 53-acre site in Kurla was bought for Rs 1,900 crore from defunct Premier Automobiles. The deal was done by IL&FS.
An analyst from an international brokerage tracking the company said, “Till now nothing was moving. Even if they are able to shift 700 families in the next eight months, moving people in the second phase would be easier. Also, we did not expect TDR generation for 2012-13 onwards due to lack of clarity from the government’s side. Now, hopefully, some TDR would be generated.”