MUMBAI, December 9: In a burst of pre-poll largesse, the Sena-BJP government today announced yet another scheme, to provide free housing to about 20 lakh people already residing in the old and dilapidated buildings of Mumbai.

The promise comes at a time when the much-publicised scheme to provide free tenements to 40 lakh slumdwellers is yet to take off in concrete terms.

Chief Minister Manohar Joshi announced today that his government had decided to implement the recommendations of the Sukthankar Committee to provide free houses of 225 sq ft each to 20 lakh residents in 20,000 old and dilapidated buildings.

The CM added that though the committee had recommended recovery of one-third of the cost of construction from the tenants, the cabinet decided to give the houses free of cost to the four lakh families.

``The entire scheme will be treated on par with the scheme for the slumdwellers. Like the slumdwellers, the residents will get exemption in property tax and concession in other taxes levied by the Municipal Corporation. But they will have to pay maintenance charge of Rs 225 per month,'' Joshi added.

According to real estate watchers, implementation of this scheme is likely to result in further crash in property prices in the city.

Under the scheme which will be implemented with the participation of private builders, the tenants will be rehabilitated in new accommodations at the same location after repair or reconstruction of their old dwellings, free of cost. The state government will draft a priority list of buildings to be reconstructed under the programme.

``The private builders will be provided with major incentives in the form of additional Floor Space Index (FSI) equal to 50 per cent of the total area of the building. The FSI will be further enhanced to 60 per cent in case more than five buildings were repaired or reconstructed simultaneously in one locality and in case of eight or more buildings, the FSI for builders would be increased to 70 per cent. The additional FSI awarded to builders will be transferable to other areas in the metropolis,'' Joshi added.

As per official records of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, there are a total of 20,000 cessed buildings in the island city. Out of these, 15000 were constructed prior to 1940, while 1500 buildings were constructed between 1940 and 1950, the remaining buildings were constructed between 1950 and 1969. ``It was essential to rehabilitate the tenants in these buildings as most of these buildings were beyond repairs,'' Joshi added.

When asked about the old and dilapidated buildings in the suburbs, Joshi said another high-level committee headed by former Chief Secretary Dinesh Afzalpurkar has appointed to study the magnitude of the problem and make recommendations to the government.

In its report, the Sukthankar Committee had strongly recommended reconstruction of these buildings for two reasons. Firstly, these buildings were beyond repairs and secondly, it was very uneconomical for the Repair and Reconstruction Board to maintain these buildings.

The deficit on maintenance of these buildings had increased from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 1.25 crore during 1991-92 and 1995-96. The Sukthankar Committee had also drawn the attention of the alliance government towards the failures of the free housing scheme for the slumdwellers.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.