MHADA to amend laws to accelerate the redevelopment of cessed buildings.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Agency (MHADA) is taking measures to expedite the redevelopment of the cessed buildings in the island city, as a matter of urgency, following the death of 11 individuals in the Kesarbai building collapse in Dongari on 16 July.

The MHADA proposed new legislation on the redevelopment to be brought by the state government and under the new law, it was suggested that if owners of cessed buildings are not interested or create barriers to the redevelopment method the ownership of the building will be transferred to a cooperative society of tenants and through that, the redevelopment process will be continued.

The suggested law also states that MHADA will take over and continue to work if the cooperative housing society of tenants also does not carry out the redevelopment.

The cessed structures are the structures covered by the Rent Control Act and the rents in these are fixed at the level of 1948.  The owners of these buildings have lost the interest in repairs and maintenance, which meant that the state government handed over repairs and maintenance responsibilities to the MHADA in the 1970s. The MHADA levies cease on the rents paid by tenants instead of repairing these buildings, which is why these buildings are called ceased buildings.

A decade has gone since the policies of redeveloped ceased buildings have been brought, yet very few have been redeveloped till date. There are 14,000 odd abandoned buildings that are located in the town.

“The State government tries to introduce a regulation on this matter before the model code of behavior for the Assembly election comes into force.”  The new legislation is also going to decrease eligibility for redevelopment from 30 to 25 years, said a senior MHADA representative who did not want to be named. Currently, 30 or over 30 years old buildings are suitable for redevelopment.