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Mumbai: State gives nod to redevelop slums located on airport land

The state government has given the green signal to Mumbai International Airport Ltd to carry out redevelopment of slums on the Mumbai airport land.

MIAL is a joint venture between Adani Airports and Airport Authority of India, that operates Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

The state urban development department issued a notification allowing it to redevelop slums on airport land.

Mumbai airport covers an area 1,875 acres and was given to MIAL on a 30-year lease in 2006. Rehabilitation of slum-dwellers will free 200 acres for aeronautical and commercial development.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Notified Area comprises large areas under slums which officials say pose security threat being in close vicinity of airport operations.

In 2014, the civil aviation ministry had given in-principle approval for in-situ rehabilitation of slums and requested for an airport-specific slum rehabilitation scheme.

A new regulation allows MIAL to carry out redevelopment through slum rehabilitation schemes. Eligible hutment dwellers may be rehabilitated by being shifted to another location within the airport land or outside “as far as possible within the limits of Greater Mumbai or Mumbai metropolitan region”. It is estimated there are over 80,000 slum households on the airport land.

It adds that MIAL’s decision will be final and binding on everyone regarding proportion and location of the land area used for rehabilitation component and amenity component.

The maximum floor space index allowed for the slum scheme is four or the maximum required for rehabilitation. FSI is the ratio which defines how much can be built on a plot.

MIAL shall be eligible for land TDR (Transfer of Development Rights) two times the land used for ex-situ rehabilitation. The TDR will be released in four tranches after various levels of construction are completed.

Only the actual occupant of the ground floor structure shall be eligible for free housing consisting of a 300-sq-ft carpet area tenement. However, the already constructed 269-sq-ft tenement will also be offered and those opting for these will not be compensated for the difference in area, reads the regulation.

Pavement dwellers, slums on land required for airport development, open spaces shall not get in-situ rehabilitation. Also, commercial go-downs, scrap godowns, cow sheds, hazardous units will not be rehabilitated in-situ.

A senior bureaucrat said it would be a challenge to get the slum dwellers to accept rehabilitation even outside the airport, let alone relocate in the MMR.

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