Mumbai: Despite the downturn in the real estate market in Mumbai, work on the biggest slumdwellers’ relocation project—costing Rs 7,000 crores—is going on at a fast pace. If the project is completed as per schedule, then the ugly sight thousands of huts surrounding Santa Cruz and Sahar air terminals and the consequent risk to flight operations will be a thing of the past in another four years.
In September 2008, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) signed a contract with real estate company HDIL for demolishing 80,000 huts—which had encroached on 274 acres of airport land—and rehousing them in pucca flats elsewhere. HDIL was to be compensated for this mammoth task by giving a whopping TDR of 3.50 crore sq-ft and 65 acres near the airport for activities related to flight operations like hotels. In fact, the firm has already received TDR for 30 lakh sq-ft which it can sell at the current market price of Rs 1,700 per sq-ft. “The fall in TDR prices threatened to play havoc with the economics of the massive project. Fortunately that is not happening,’’ a MIAL official observed.
The company has purchased 52 acres of land belonging to the Premier car factory at Kurla at a cost of Rs 1,900 crore and started work on building 16,500 flats, each measuring 270 sq-ft spread across 30 buildings with 185 wings. “We hope to hand over the keys to the first lot of beneficiaries by August 15 this year,’’ said Balraj Dube, senior general manager of HDIL. “We are also building temples, mosques, churches, balwadis etc as per the requirement of the beneficiaries,’’ he added.
About 1,700 flats will be built in the six acres that was earlier owned by Bhandari metallurgical company at Chunabatti. The remaining flats will be constructed on nine acres of land which belonged to Kilburn factory in Nahur. More land is being sourced at Powai.
