84 HIG flats to be kept out of lottery by MHADA
Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has kept aside about 84 low-cost homes in Powai being built for the higher-income group (HIG) which had been set up with the intention of providing affordable housing for the public. The purchase price of these flats is well over a crore.
The Authority is considering to allot these houses to the state government to be used as housing quarters for its employees. It is also thinking of allotting a few of these to the the Coast Guard.
Chief officer of MHADA’s Mumbai board, Mr. Niranjankumar Sudhanshu said, “The state government had approached MHADA to allot a few houses for its employees. We have offered to do so. The proposal is currently under consideration with the General Administration Department of the state government. For now, we have not included these houses in this year’s lottery.” Sudhanshu added that the Coast Guard has been consistently approaching MHADA seeking housing stock for its staff.
These 84 houses that MHADA is planning to exclude from the stock this year are located in a high-rise in the authority’s complex at Tunga village in Powai. It is the same complex in which the housing authority had earlier sold 480 flats of 476.74 sq ft for HIG for Rs 75.22 lakh in its lottery in May 2013. Many applicants had found these houses expensive and thus, there were fewer than usual applicants for the housing board’s lottery last year.
Even D K Jagdale, joint chief officer of MHADA’s Mumbai board, after having won a house in the authority’s lottery last year, had accepted that the Powai houses were expensive and he openly said that he wished that he had got a house in the lottery at another location where the rate wasn’t this high.
Though, the rate being applied to these 84 houses is similar, but owing to their bigger size, with a carpet area of about 740 sq ft, the ticket size is much higher. The MHADA officials are attributing the higher cost of the houses in its Powai complex to its plans of constructing a Municipal Training Institute on a part of the land for the civic body. The work also involves a fair amount of rock cutting.
THIS YEAR’ S DRAW
MHADA is also planning to release a few other houses in its Powai complex that are smaller in size and where the overall price is not very high. This year, the complex will witness 108 houses to go under the hammer. The carpet area of these are 476.74 sq ft for the higher-income group costing Rs 75.23 lakh and nine houses with a size of 305.91 sq ft for the middle-income group costing Rs 48.86 lakh.
Source: The Indian Express
Carpet area, Civic body, Coast Guard officials, D K Jagdale, HIG, Higher-income group, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, Mhada, Municipal Training Institute, Niranjankumar Sudhanshu, Powai, State government
