Mumbai:First lot of BDD Chawl residents of worli Will move into their new 500 sq ft carpeted two-bedroom homes by January next year. From 160 sq ft houses with common toilets to self-contained apartments, residents will make a life-changing difference. Work is slow in Naigam BDD and NM Joshi Marg BDD Chawl.
“Around 550 flats are about to be completed. We had promised to hand them over to residents by March 2025, but we are confident that we can do it by January,” said a senior Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority).MHADA) Official anonymity requested.
The official said MHADA had started construction of 14 buildings in Phase I in Worli in 2021. The buildings, each 40 storeys high, are being built on police grounds. While two buildings are nearing completion, construction work on six buildings is in the final stages. A total of 33 buildings are to be constructed to accommodate 9,689 tenants of Worli BDD Chawl. The redevelopment project was started in 2019 at an estimated cost of Rs 11,744 crore and with cost overruns it is estimated that the project currently costs Rs 14,000 crore.
Although the promise of the new home is attractive, the ongoing construction is causing immense hardships to the tenants who live in the chawl. 160 residents of BDD chawl numbers 21 and 29, closest to the construction site, are going through tough times and are demanding that they be shifted to new buildings first.
“Malaria, dengue have become a regular feature. The sewerage network has collapsed. Sewage now flows into storm drains and there is foul smell all around 24×7. Water pipelines pass through drains and for the last one year we have been getting contaminated water. The situation had never been so bad in so many years. During construction, slabs have fallen and tiles have broken. Most days there is no electricity for seven hours. We have been writing to MHADA and PWD for the last one year, but there has been no solution,” said Shailesh Gade, a resident.
On September 23, residents met CM’s son and Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde Eknath ShindeAlong with Byculla MLA Yamini Jadhav, demanded that they be accommodated first in the new towers which are nearing completion.
Officials said there were no complaints from residents when the construction work was going on for the last three years. “There were some issues in between but they were addressed immediately. Now seeing these ready buildings they are pressurizing them to shift first. The land on which chawls 21-29, which also include the police quarters, stand has been earmarked for a recreation site, so there is no need to vacate them immediately. This will be developed at the end so that these residents can be directly moved to the new flats,” officials said.
On the other hand, officials said that chawl numbers 61 to 82 need to be vacated to start construction of the next phase. Currently 1,000 families from Worli have been shifted to transit camps and 600 are being given a rent of Rs 25,000 per month.
MHADA officials, who are overseeing the Naigam BDD redevelopment, said eight buildings of 23 storeys each are being constructed in Phase I. “1,401 residents will be shifted to these buildings by December 2025,” a senior official said. A total of 3,344 residential houses and 55 shops are to be rehabilitated in Naigam.
