Vilas Avachat, MHADA president, announced this at a meeting of MHADA members, the housing department secretary and housing minister on July 1, convened to discuss equity participation in the proposed Shivshahi Punarvasan Company.

The state government set up the SPP on May 28 to breathe life into the spluttering Slum Redevelopment Scheme and raise funds. It was also decided to allow MHADA to move in as a developer under SRD.

The government's initial equity participation of Rs 600 crore will be evenly split between MHADA and MMRDA. MHADA will make its Rs 300 crore share available to the Managing Director of the proposed Shivshahi Punarvasan Company in stages.

It was also decided at the meeting that only those MHADA plots on which a scheme has been formulated and approved bythe Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) will be transferred to the proposed company.

The lands on which MHADA has already undertaken or planned a SRD or housing scheme will not be transferred to the proposed company, said Avachat. Similarly, open plots of land required by the Mumbai Housing Board for its regular programmes would also not be utilised for SRD scheme.

Further, as per the recommendations in the Afzalpurkar Committee report, the state government has accepted to consider the value of land on which slums exist will be taken as zero as a matter of policy. However, open MHADA land transferred to the proposed company will be valued at current market rates.

Housing Minister Sureshdada Jain quashed doubts expressed that the proposed company would hamper the progress of MHADA's ongoing projects. He said the roles of the housing authority and the proposed company would be complementary.

The main task ahead for the Housing Board this year, said the government, was fulfilling the target ofconstructing 77,420 houses for economically weaker sections and low income group as set by the Centre. This is in addition to the proposed two lakh houses to be built under SPP in the city.