EXPERTS SPEAK...

Pankaj Joshi, architect and principal director of Urban Centre:

“Affordable housing in Mumbai is a serious problem. We cannot allow housing stock to get dilapidated. There must be a ward-level system wherein repair and restoration of a structure must be made mandatory. However, there seems to be no urgency about dealing with dilapidated and dangerous buildings among agencies like MHADA and the Repair Board. Individual redevelopment, whether by private firms or agencies like MHADA, lack scale and direction. Failing to address the root of the problem, our authorities have been unable to look at the larger picture of creating housing stock or are neglecting the affordability factor. Tenants are unreasonable and do not want to cooperate with a rent hike. The state and Central laws also makes it impossible for owners and landlords with old rent agreements. The state government must think about creating adequate rental housing. However, numbers of such affordable housing options are very low and other options are unaffordable. So tenants and residents continue to risk lives instead of vacating,” he said.

Devendra Jain, retired deputy municipal commissioner for removal of encroachments department:

He evacuated several people from dilapidated buildings himself. He also initiated a method to ensure tenants vacate the buildings, which was known as the ‘Jain Pattern’. “Tenants often feel they will lose out in redevelopment. They do not trust the government, the owners/ landlords, or the builders who have won redevelopment contracts,” Jain said. During his tenure as ward officer of P-North ward (Malad), he surveyed such buildings with his teams. He then used to call residents and show them a presentation of the survey. “Each tenant was given a certificate from the BMC signed by me with the area measurement of his/her home. This was an assurance that they won't be duped if the building is redeveloped,” Jain said. He had cleared 100 such dilapidated buildings till he retired. He added, “Civic officials need to build confidence among tenants. We need to identify the problems and resolve them accordingly.”

Chandrashekar Prabhu, senior architect, housing activist and former president of MHADA: “There are 14,800 cessed buildings in the city classified under three categories A, B and C. Those under category A (around 12,000) are over 80 years, under category B (over 1,000) are over 70 years and under category C (1,000) are 60 years. All these buildings have already surpassed their effective age. However, the procedure to get them redeveloped is at a snail pace. If the state government wants to change this, it should come up with a proper policy for dilapidated building's reconstruction/redevelopment. The BMC’s list is of 407 C1 category non-cessed buildings. These buildings are wrongly termed as dangerous. It can be called stable or unstable. I know of the number of examples, where perfectly fine buildings have been declared dangerous just to earn extra FSI. When a builder offers money to tenants to vacate the building and they refuse, getting the structure declared dilapidated is the easiest way to get it vacated. I wish to ask, how many buildings declared dangerous by the BMC have collapsed as compared to those that are illegal?