As old buildings and many eligible in the MMR await redevelopment, there is a need to create enough housing stock for which redevelopment is a better compliant by exploring possibilities of public-private partnerships, stated Dr Bhushan Gagrani, Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. He was speaking at a panel discussion — ‘Society Redevelopment under Various Sections’, organised by NAREDCO Maharashtra at Mumbai.
Responding to the demand of reducing the premium on redevelopment by the state’s real estate industry, Dr Gagrani stated that various redevelopment avenues could be structured properly with due feasibility. He also emphasised upon the need for incentivising redevelopment in order to address various issues affecting redevelopment, but also cautioned that the incentive provided had nothing to do with feasibility. “For undertaking any redevelopment project, it has to be financially feasible where awareness among the society members is necessary towards redevelopment,” he affirmed.
Explaining the BMC’s vision to match the infrastructure with rapid growth of redevelopment and whether Mumbai would be able to cope up with the same, Dr Gagrani added that Mumbai’s infrastructure might face challenges when the city would undergo redevelopment. He expressed, “For surface infrastructure like urban mobility, parking areas, quality of roads, we already have the plans ready. The infrastructure below the land like sewage water, water supply might face challenges, as the amount of water per capita is going up.”
The Commissioner highlighted that Section 33(7A) applicable for redevelopment of dilapidated, unsafe, existing, authorised tenant occupied-buildings in suburbs, had been getting a good response from the private societies, as they were going for competitive bidding from the developers.
Gautam Chatterjee, Former Founding Chairman of MahaRERA, advised that incentivising redevelopment was necessary, but needed to be balanced to take it forward. He stated, “When about 8,000 projects are stuck in Mumbai due to timeline issues, there is a need to disseminate knowledge and information to educate the society members and other stakeholders about the processes of redevelopment to be followed and acquaint them with various Acts, Regulations, RERA guidelines, Court orders, etc. that are necessary to understand. For disseminating such information transparently and seamlessly, we need a web portal; so that all information is displayed to resolve problems and see that projects are monitored." He added, “We need e-monitoring methods and an ‘Alternate Dispute Resolution’ for stalled projects. Also, we need a ‘Self-Regulated Organization (SRO)’ platform like a Section 8 Company for self-regulation.”
NAREDCO Maharashtra has collaborated with Gautam Chatterjee for the launch of ‘Grihamony Redevelopment Stakeholders Federations (GRSF)'' for awareness in redevelopment.
Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO and Co-founder, Hiranandani Group, advocated the need to reduce premium on redevelopment. He said, “The challenge is to match the pace of redevelopment. Reduction of premium would create more affordable housing in the city and hence, at least 50% reduction in premium is necessary. Redevelopment should provide aspirations for a better quality of life.”
