In order to encourage developers to take up more slum redevelopment projects outside Mumbai, the Urban Development Department (UDD) under Unified Development and Control Regulation (UDCR) has increased the Floor Space Index (FSI) from three to four.
This will ensure the generation of more housing stock, especially where the land cost is less and the valuation of saleable houses is lower than, say, in Mumbai, said a Mantralaya official on condition of anonymity. The FSI is the ratio of the total constructed area to the total floor area.
"If a developer is carrying out a slum redevelopment project at Worli, he can recover the cost by selling the saleable houses due to higher land cost. However, if a builder is executing a project at Dahisar, he may not be able to obtain the same revenue as in Mumbai with the same FSI margin."
"Therefore, incentivised with the FSI benefit, he can construct more houses and make some revenue. This will give a fillip to slum projects in Thane and other regions where several such projects have been left untouched," asserted the officer.
The ‘4-FSI’ benefit does not apply to other Planning Authorities / Special Planning Authorities / Development Authorities within the limits of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, such as MIDC, NAINA, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Hill Station Municipal Councils, Eco-Sensitive/ EcoFragile region notified by Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Lonavala Municipal Council, among others.
The new notification issued by the UDD department on February 3 reads, "Maximum FSI permissible that can be sanctioned on any slum site shall be 4.0, or the sum of total of rehabilitation built-up area (BUA) plus incentive BUA, whichever is more, with minimum tenement density of 650 per net hectare."
The notification also empowers the SRA Chief Executive Officer to reduce the tenement density norms of 650 net per hectare, if there are local planning constraints and issues of viability.
"My understanding is that there is very less likelihood of slum dwellers getting rehabilitated at all. The builder was earlier not permitted to buy the rights from the slum dwellers but now officially he is encouraged to do so. First, permission was given to non-slum dwellers to buy slums and now with this new relaxation, all slum rights can be sold three years after demolition. The entire 4-FSI will go to the builder. The slum dwellers will come back to create new slums," said housing expert Chandrashekhar Prabhu.
Several slum dwellers fear that the builders will unleash a reign of terror by getting the underworld to forcefully make slum dwellers give up their rights.
"What is the state's objective, to generate housing stock through an increase in FSI?" questioned Prabhu.
