Nine developers and MHADA held a meeting to negotiate the costing of Patra Chawl redevelopment project.

The 672 tenants of Patra Chawl’s redevelopment project in Goregaon get a ray of hope for the first time since their homes were demolished in 2010. On 27 November, nine private developers who bought the land from Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) in the 42-acre redevelopment plan, met with officials from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to negotiate the reconstruction costs in compliance with the Bombay Court orders.

Before the meeting between the developers and the MHADA chief officer, B Radhakrishnan, at the housing development authority’s Kalanagar office took place; hundreds of Patra Chawl tenants protested and demanded possession of their homes.

The development agreement with Guruashish Constructions, a part of the HDIL group, was terminated by MHADA in 2018 after the company failed to fulfill the rehabilitation tenements as well as the free sale component, Meadows, even after eight years. The HDIL, however, sub-contracted the land to nine private developers, some of which built highrises. In February 2018 the nine developers moved the Bombay High Court and acquired an order which restricted MHADA from further “coercive action.”

The matter has been pending before SJ Judge Kathawalla almost two years before the insolvency of Guruashish first and then of HDIL. Last month, in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank scam, Sarang Wadhwan, one of the promoters of HDIL, was arrested. Until the re-habilitation and 2,200 tenements were first developed and handed over to MHADA, the MHADA refused to grant occupancy certificate on free-sale buildings on their land. On 20 November, Justice Kathawalla instructed Radhakrishnan to consult with the nine developers to negotiate and determine the estimated rehabilitation costs and send the minutes of the meeting in the court on November 29.

The group of developers, including Parag Munot of Kalpataru and Ashok Mohnani from EktaWorld, addressed at the meeting on November 27 the estimated costs of completing the rehab tenements. During discussions, MHADA stated the estimated cost to around Rs 320 crore, with the exception of rent arrears for over four years and Rs 25 crore corpus fund, while the developers estimated the cost to Rs 220 crore.

The tenants were endorsed by Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai, who also attended one of the two meetings. “I told the officials that it was MHADA’s juridical and moral responsibility to prioritize the rehabilitation portion. A tripartite agreement had been signed between the developers, MHADA and tenants and people vacated their homes believing that the government was involved in the project,” he said.