MUMBAI: With a huge requirement for rehabilitation housing, the BMC aims to generate between 5,000 and 10,000 Project Affected Persons (PAP) tenements in each administrative zone of the city. Yet, even as it faces this imperative and has committed thousands of crores of rupees towards PAP projects, it is considering releasing 1,802.75 sq metres of land reserved specifically for rehabilitation and resettlement at Majas in Jogeshwari East.
Ashraf Azmi, Congress group leader in the BMC, has written to municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide, seeking the withdrawal of the proposal. Azmi demanded that the BMC first establish whether the MHADA redevelopment could be undertaken without sacrificing the rehab reservation. Even if the existing reservation is found unsuitable, the BMC should examine whether the land can instead continue to serve a public purpose, including public housing or another municipal or social infrastructure requirement. The controversy comes amid wider concerns over the availability and protection of public-purpose land in Mumbai. With the city requiring rehabilitation housing for people displaced by infrastructure projects and redevelopment, the availability of land reserved for such purposes is increasingly significant. The civic administration will now have to assess whether the proposed release of the Jogeshwari parcel is justified by an overriding planning requirement, and whether the loss of rehabilitation land can be offset by an equivalent alternative resource.
The larger plot which encompasses the 1,802.75-sq-metre rehab component is also a significant public-purpose land resource. Under DP 2034, it continues to carry several public-purpose reservations and civic facilities, including schools, playgrounds, a police station, BEST bus facility and affordable housing apart from rehabilitation and resettlement. “Also, why is the entire 1,802.75 sq metres being automatically converted into a residential zone?
“If the Corporation needs rehabilitation housing on such a large scale and is committing thousands of crores to obtain it through private arrangements, why is it reducing the land already reserved for the same public purpose?” he asked. “If its deletion is considered essential, the BMC should identify an equivalent amount of rehabilitation land to replace the amount being lost,” he said.
Under the earlier Development Plan, it carried reservations for public housing, a bus station, secondary schools, playgrounds, a post office, roads and other amenities.
