Plan to have 5,000 homes under lottery over the next year in Mumbai, says MHADA CEO

MHADA CEO Sanjeev Jaiswal said that the the body plans on putting 5,000 homes under the lottery system for Mumbai over the next year.

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), the state's nodal agency for the supply of affordable housing, is planning to supply around 5,000 homes over the next year to Mumbai through its lottery system conducted by the regional board, and is aiming to maintain that level of supply in the years ahead, Sanjeev Jaiswal, the vice president and chief executive officer of MHADA, said in an interaction with Moneycontrol.

Discounted-price units offered under the MHADA lottery system come from one of two pools: joint ventures with private developers under various development and redevelopment projects, and projects that are developed by MHADA itself. Successive governments in Maharashtra have pushed for MHADA to take the latter route to reduce its dependence on developers in case projects are not executed on time due to financial and other issues.

On August 9, MHADA opened the application process for a lottery offering 2,030 homes in Mumbai, located largely in the suburbs and belonging to the low- and middle-income group categories. The online draw of lots will be conducted on September 13. Of the total number of homes to be allotted, more than 1,300 are built by MHADA. Jaiswal added that a lottery for the Konkan Housing and Area Development Board (KHADB), MHADA's regional unit which includes cities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region such as Thane, Virar and Kalyan, will be announced later in August. The KHADB has jurisdiction over Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts in Maharashtra, of which three—Thane, Palghar and Raigad—are of importance to the housing market in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

"There will be another lottery in Mumbai next year, and our aim is that every regional board should conduct at least one or two lotteries each year. Over the next year, we plan to supply 3,500 homes in Mumbai that are to be contributed by MHADA itself in projects that the body has constructed," Jaiswal told Moneycontrol, adding that a substantial number of MHADA-constructed homes are also expected to be available in other regional boards in the coming year.

Jaiswal said during the interaction that the long-awaited redevelopment of the Kamathipura cluster in the island city is inching closer to reality, with the state government approving the detailed project report and finalising the compensation scheme for landowners. He added that the tender for redevelopment is expected to be floated in around two weeks' time. MHADA is the nodal agency executing the project for the state government.

For the Kamathipura cluster redevelopment project, the state government has approved a landowners' compensation of one residential apartment of 500 sq ft for every 50 sq m of land owned. More than 6,600 tenants are present at the project area. Jaiswal added that the redevelopment will have a free-sale component of around 5 million sq ft.

Other similar undertakings, such as the large BDD Chawl redevelopment project in Worli, are also progressing in phases, Jaiswal said, although the authority is facing trouble convincing existing residents in yet-to-be redeveloped parts of the dilapidated complexes to move to transit or rental housing. MHADA also has redevelopment projects lined up in areas such as Bandra Reclamation, Adarsh Nagar in Worli and at Patra Chawl in Goregaon, although more progress and clarity may be possible after the state assembly elections scheduled for October and November.

With respect to deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' announcement in the state legislative council that MHADA, among other authorities, can complete stalled projects under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), Jaiswal added that work towards it has begun.

"Regarding stalled SRA schemes, we are conducting feasibility studies for 17 stalled projects under the SRA, consisting of around 25,000 units, which MHADA can complete," he said.

MHADA earned a revenue of around Rs 9,500 crore for FY24, and has set itself a target of Rs 15,000 crore in revenue for FY25. "It is an ambitious revenue target, but we expect to cross that target for this financial year," Jaiswal said.