Enough Housing Stock Required through PPP for Smooth Redevelopment: BMC Commissioner Gagrani 

Mumbai / October 6, 2024: As old buildings in MMR await redevelopment, there is a need to create enough housing stock by exploring possibilities of public-private partnerships, stated Dr Bhushan Gagrani, Commissioner, Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). He was speaking at a Panel Discussion ‘Society Redevelopment under Various Sections’ organized by NAREDCO Maharashtra on the third-day of HOMETHON Property Expo 2024 at the Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai. 

Dr Gagrani said that the government can work with the real estate industry to find ways to make redevelopment more affordable, without sacrificing the quality of the projects.

Dr Gagrani also emphasized on the need for incentivizing redevelopment in order to address various issues affecting redevelopment, but also cautioned that the incentive provided had nothing to do with feasibility. 

“For undertaking any redevelopment project, it has to be financially feasible where awareness among the society members is necessary towards redevelopment,” he said. 

Speaking about the BMC’s vision to match the infrastructure with rapid growth of Redevelopment and whether Mumbai would be able to cope up with redevelopment, Dr Gagrani added that Mumbai’s Infrastructure might face challenges when the city would undergo redevelopment. “For surface infrastructure like urban mobility, parking areas, quality of roads, we already have the plans ready. The infrastructure below the land like sewage water, water supply might face challenges, as the amount of water per capita is going up”. 

The Commissioner highlighted that Section 33(7A) applicable for redevelopment of dilapidated, unsafe, existing, authorized tenant occupied-buildings in suburbs, had been getting a good response from the private societies, as they were going for competitive bidding from the developers.

Gautam Chatterjee, Former Founding Chairman of MahaRERA, advised incentivizing redevelopment with a balanced approach. He stated, “When about 8000 projects are stuck in Mumbai due to timeline issues, there is a need to disseminate knowledge and information to educate the society members and other stakeholders about the processes of redevelopment to be followed and acquaint them with various Acts, Regulations, RERA guidelines, Court orders, etc that are necessary to understand. For disseminating such information transparently and seamlessly, we need a web portal; so that all information is displayed to resolve problems and see that projects are monitored.” 

He added, “We need e-monitoring methods and an Alternate Dispute Resolution’ for stalled projects. Also, we need a ‘Self-Regulated Organization (SRO) platform like a Section 8 Company for self-regulation”. 

Meanwhile, NAREDCO Maharashtra Collaborated with Ex-MahaRERA Chief Gautam Chatterjee for a Launch ‘Grihamony Redevelopment Stakeholders Federations (GRSF)’‘ for Awareness in Redevelopment. 

Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO and Co-founder, Hiranandani Group, advocated for the need to reduce premium on redevelopment. He said, “The challenge is to match the pace of redevelopment. Reduction of premium would create more affordable housing in the city and hence, at least 50% reduction in premium is necessary. Redevelopment should provide aspirations for a better quality of life”. 

Rajan Bandelkar, Vice Chairman, NAREDCO and Director, Raunak Group, said, “It is important to balance viability for the private sector for undertaking redevelopment projects. The Government should incentivize the societies, which undertake self-redevelopment and consume lesser FSI. People who use lesser FSI, there should not be any premium considering the climate change challenge and the issues engulfing the redevelopment agenda”.

Talking about the need to have a conciliation mechanism in Redevelopment, Hitesh Thakkar, Vice President, NAREDCO Maharashtra and Partner, Prem Group, said a framework for resolution of disputes for finding amicable redressal is needed, as the projects would get delayed and entail into high litigation costs.