What Ails Mumbai Redevelopment?  

Sample this.

Abundantly certain that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, Abhay Singh (26) and Zeba Khan (24) decided to tell their parents they were going to marry. Their decision to do so only got firmer when their parents cited the religious difference as the biggest reason for their opposition. The duo felt they were not only standing to their ground for their personal reasons but were also up against a social evil.

Two years later, that feeling of being 'activists' fighting a social cause has vanished into thin air. Mindful of the unavoidable mess that is on their way, the couple is still looking for reasons to somehow end the dysfunctional marriage.

A similar situation seems to have stuck the redevelopment activities in Mumbai.

Recent media reports suggest many developers have stopped the work citing delay in government approvals and lack of funds. They have also stopped the monthly amount they are required to pay displaced families as rent. Frustrated, many chawl dwellers are also planning to go ahead with the redevelopment work on their own.

The Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (Mhada), the agency responsible for the redevelopment work at Mumbai chalws and old buildings, had started the work with much fanfare. Redeveloping old and dying building of the country's financial capital seemed nothing but sacred. For there is no dearth of plan makers in the country, sections in the Development Control Rules were introduced; private players were invited to have their share in meeting the holy cause, along with many incentives. All went fine till it came to implementing what looked brilliant on papers.

The grand plans of development are often made without taking into account the common man and the problems he may have to deal with it. Something similar happened in this case, too. Those living in Mumbai chawls — these chawls are in the prime areas of Mumbai and the tenements dwellers would rather be in a crumbling structure here than move to a studio apartment in the suburbs — were not willing to vacate the place for greener pastures in the suburbs.  

Developers who have joined the cause mostly on ground different than monetary benefits started losing interest, too. Stopping the monthly rent looks like an example of their desperation to exit.  Government agencies and developers seem to have entered into an agreement hurriedly, without giving it much thought that implementation is the key as far as entering into pacts go.