MHADA gets back ₹500 crore given for railway land to develop Dharavi Project

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) on Friday received ₹500 crore for the acquisition of railway land for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. This came as a big relief for MHADA which has been reportedly struggling with a cash crunch due to unsold housing stock across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

According to MHADA officials, the amount will help them speed up the work undertaken for the BDD chawl redevelopment.

In 2019 the state government decided to buy a total of 47.5 acres of land near Dharavi for the Dharavi redevelopment project as it was necessary to make the project viable. Accordingly, the state government discussed the issue with the railway ministry and it was decided that the railway will hand over the land for ₹800 crore. While raising the fund for this deal, the state government had instructed MHADA to contribute a total of ₹500 crores and the rest ₹300 crores were given by SRA. Accordingly, MHADA contributed ₹200 crore from the self-fund and ₹300 crore from ‘Maharashtra Niwara Fund’. Due to such money transfers for other projects and the unsold housing stock in MMR region excluding Mumbai MHADA has been facing the financial problem due to cash crunch. As per the estimates due to unsold housing stock of around 5,500 in Kokan board, MHADA is facing a challenge to recover over ₹1,600 crore.

MHADA on Friday got back ₹500 crore given for the railway land development. “It was decided that once the developer is appointed for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project the money taken from MHADA will be given back to the housing authority. Recently the state government appointed the Ms. Adani Properties for the redevelopment of Dharavi and as per norms a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd was also formed by the developer in September. Therefore, MHADA vice president Sanjeev Jaiswal pursued the matter to get back the money. Accordingly, SPV for Dharavi has given back ₹500 crores to MHADA.” said MHADA officials.

MHADA officials also said that this ₹500 crore is a big relief for the housing authority which is working on many projects. “MHADA has undertaken various projects like BDD chawl redevelopment, Siddharth Nagar redevelopment project at Goregaon from self-funds. As we received ₹500 crore it will help to expedite the work on such projects.” said MHADA official.