Old Mumbai buildings to get a new lease of life

MUMBAI:  The Maharashtra government has decided to launch a time-bound single-window clearance and approval system for the re-development of old and dilapidated buildings in the Greater Mumbai area.

According to property redevelopers association (Pra) president Haresh Mehta, the move will accelerate the pace of re-development of old and dilapidated buildings in the region, encourage private participation and help Mumbai transform into an ultra modern city. But a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation official said that more than 20 lakh tenants living in 19,642 cessed buildings in the area would have to obtain 32 different types of no objection certificates (NOCs) from the BMC and the submit a re-development proposal under the renewal scheme of the Rent Control Act and the Development Control Regulation (DCR), 1991.

The state housing development department has already announced that a special committee, under the chairmanship of the BMC director of engineering services and projects, will meet every 15 days and clear long pending re-development proposals.

“The single-window clearance system is expected to reduce the time-spam of each project. The new system will also benefit the tenants as they will now have to stay in transit accomodations for less amount of time,” said general secretary of PRA Prujit Aggarwal.

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