Mumbai: Patra Chawl flat buyers take protest route to get homes
MUMBAI: Members of around 1,700 families that had booked flats in the free sale component of three buildings of the controversial Patra Chawl redevelopment project in Goregaon but have not got their possession though the buildings are almost complete staged a protest outside Mhada‘s Bandra office on Wednesday.
The Mhada-owned 46-acre property has been in the eye of the storm for the past four years after the original builder, Guruashish Construction, a subsidiary of HDIL, was unable to complete the rehabilitation project. Its promoters were subsequently jailed in connection with the Punjab National Bank scam.
The home buyers said they had paid more than Rs 3,000 crore collectively to the builders, Rs 500 crore towards GST and Rs 200 crore towards stamp duty to the state government but haven’t been able to move into their homes for 7 years now. The protesters had booked their flats with private developers who took over the redevelopment project. “A government resolution issued in July 2021 asked Mhada to ink in-consent terms with the developers, but 14 months on, the authority has failed to do so. “Having made over 90% payment to the builder, I haven’t been able to move into my new home. We urged Mhada and the developers to quickly close the consent terms keeping the interest of 1,700 tax-paying middle income families in mind,” Captain Santosh Rele, one of the home buyers, said.
A delegation of home buyers met Mhada chief officer Yogesh Mhase and demanded that the authority issue an occupation certificate (OC) to the three buildings-Kalpataru Radiance, Ekta Tripolis and Sangam Lifespaces.
Last year, the MVA government had stepped in and directed Mhada to take over the project and tasked it with rehabilitating the 672 original tenants of Patra Chawl. The government also allowed Mhada to sell additional construction areas at market rate. Officials said according to Mhada, the total liability of all nine builders in the project towards Mhada is around Rs 3,100 crore.
Mhada officials said there has been a delay in issuing OC for the completed flats because as per the GR, an expert technical committee has been appointed to fix the dues that have to be recovered from the builders. “The panel has to evaluate the liabilities utilised by each developer. Once the amount is fixed, consent terms will be filed in the court in 8 days. Only after the builders pay the amount can the issue be resolved,” Mhase told the delegation that met him.