Said corporation director Niranjan Hiranandani, the decision to grant SPPL the money is not as sudden as it appears. The proposal for a loan had been put before HUDCO only this January, he informed. ``We decided to back the state government's free slum housing scheme as it is a well conceived and viable project,'' stated Hiranandani.

Is it prudent to sanction the SPPL such a huge amount considering its non-performance till date? Hiranandani assured that ``We have assessed the scheme, and we are not trying to flog a dead horse. The money will be in the line of credit. We will release money only as and when required for work.'' HUDCO would be disappointed if the state government failed to utilisethe entire sum it had sanctioned, added Hiranandani.

In a bid to speed up funding of old slum schemes, SPPL, at a recent board meeting, finalised a set of guidelines, under which 70 per cent of finance will be allotted to private developers of schemes which have already been approved by the SRA, but which have been held up f or want of funds. The builders are to manage the remaining 30 per cent of funds for the projects themselves. The SPPL will release money at 17.5 per cent interest as and when required at various stages of construction, board directors revealed.

SPPL also now has a joint Managing Director: M B Choube, officer on special duty and a director of the board, considered a favourite of Jain, was recently appointed to the post. Choube's appointment has raised eyebrows in the housing department, as housing secretary Govind Swaroop is also the Managing Director of SPPL. But SPPL chairperson and state housing minister Suresh Jain claimed that ``as Swaroop also holds the charge of secretary, thereis need for a person to manage the day to day running of SPPL''.

Despite the cash inflow and top-level changes, SPPL looks nowhere close to meeting its deadline of constructing 50,000 houses for slum dwellers by December 1999. The only work order issued till date and where work has started has been for an old scheme under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority at Rahul Nagar, Dharavi.

However, Jain informed that a letter of intent has been issued to three contractors for building 10,000 houses on open land. According to Jain, the work order will be issued within a fortnight to V M Jog for building around 5,000 tenements at Turbhe Mandale; Vilayati Ram Mittal, a Delhi based builder for 3,500 tenements at Dindoshi and B G Shirke for 2,000 tenements, including 900 rehabilitation tenements, at Wadala.

Shirke got the contract only after Mittal, who had quoted lowest for the Wadala project, refused to accept the work later. Mittal told Express Newsline that he did not want to undertake the Wadala project,but that it was not the usual practice to ask the second lowest bidder to lower rates.

But Jain claimed that there was nothing wrong in the board's decision to award Shirke the contract as he was the second lowest bidder and had slashed his prices to match the lowest bids. The privately owned Wadala plot, whose development is encumbered by ULCRA, will be given an NOC soon, declared Jain.