Devipada SRA project revived, residents to receive advance rent

Mumbai: Over 1,000 slum dwellers in Borivali East’s Devipada received a shot in the arm with the revival of their almost two-decade-old slum redevelopment project. The families, who are scattered across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), will be receiving the advance rent today.
The entire Devipada slum area is divided into three clusters, with a cumulative area of 1,03,153.46 sq m. In 2005, Ashapura Infrastructure, also known as Ashapura Option, initiated the process of rehabilitating the families. Of the 1,736 slum dwellers, 1,599 were declared eligible for the redeveloped homes.
“In 2012, demolition of shanties commenced. By 2015, the plot got vacated and people were paid advance rent. We all moved to different locations far away from each other,” said Sanjay Engale, secretary, Devipada SRA Cooperative Housing Society.
The plan was to house 1,599 families in four buildings and create a saleable housing stock. Months after the first building was constructed and handed over to 611 tenements, the remaining project went into a limbo.
“We were running pillar to post to get our plight heard as families stopped receiving rent and were struggling to make ends meet after shelling out the same from the meagre family income,” said Engale.
The residents then approached chief minister Eknath Shinde, who suggested that the project be continued under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority’s (SRA’s) amnesty scheme. “Now, a new developer has been roped in, and the financier will continue to stay invested,” said Prakash Surve, an MLA from Magathane.
This April, the SRA issued its order to revive the project through developer Dosti Group, said an SRA official.
The financier, Sanghvi Finance, was asked to deposit advance rent prior to initiating planning and ground work. A sum of ₹28,99,68,000 has been deposited with the SRA to be distributed among 988 families without a permanent residence at Devipada. This amount will cover rent for the next two years.
“We have begun planning the project and it is premature to share any further details on the total number of buildings that would come up and so on,” said Paresh Parekh, one of the directors of Dosti Group.
The residents are now attempting to raise other issues, such as the outstanding taxes and maintenance fees the previous developer was supposed to pay and leakage rectification under the defect liability period, among others. “We are yet to get a resolution,” said Engale.