MMRDA ready with alternative housing

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has completed the construction of 53,000 flats for families likely to be displaced by the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) and Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP) at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore. Of these, 20,072 flats are under MUTP and 24,889 under MUIP.

In the first phase of the project, around 20,000 families are likely to be displaced. Another 38,000 families will move into the new flats by the end of the year. MMRDA is considering proposals from different city builders for 5000 flats that are yet to be built.

As part of the resettlement plan, MMRDA is also building a commercial complex at Hiranandani Complex near Powai to accommodate 250 commercial establishments displaced by the project. The agency has built a total of 3,800 commercial tenements elsewhere in the city as part of the resettlement plan.

MMDRA Joint Director, Dilip Kawathkar said that these flats too would be completed and the rehabilitation and resettlement will be done by the end of the year.

In the first phase of the project, MMDRA has undertaken the widening of 20 roads in the city, including the Western and Eastern Express Highways, LBS Road, SV Road, Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road and Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road. In this phase, a total of 157 km of roads in the city are being widened.

Under the scheme, Western and Eastern Express Highways will both be widened to ten-lane highways with two-lane service roads on either side. This expansion is expected to meet the city's traffic, which is expected to grow to 16.4 lakh by 2011.

MMRDA's resettlement plan entails 225 sq.ft. flats at 30 different locations for those displaced by the MUTP and MUIP. It has also paid out Rs 20,000 to each family as compensation as well as Rs 300 as shifting charges to the families.

The World Bank is funding the MUTP-MUIP projects estimated to cost Rs 4,526 crore and Rs 2,848 crore, respectively.