Looking Back Last 10Years & Looking Forward To the Next 20 – Dhaval Ajmer

                              Director, Ajmera Realty & Infra India Ltd.

Mumbai November 16, 2013: We strongly believe that this decade indeed can be called – Mumbai’s Decade of Development. Going forward however, Mumbai will have to overcome enormous challenges in the areas of infrastructure development, urban sustainability, national infrastructure, and human capital and population.

Mumbai needs a revolution in urban sustainability & redevelopment in city of Mumbai is the prime most requisite and the need of hour and it is essential to set it on the speedy mandate. The proposed thesis to remake Mumbai into a “world-class” city and an international financial centre inspired by Shanghai’s comprehensive urban renewal during the 1990s is still a far-fetched dream.

There are 20,000 societies which need redevelopment as of now. There are 17,000 cessed buildings which need redevelopment, including cluster-development. Then there are thousands of MHADA tenements which are waiting for redevelopment. Long -term policies are not happening .The government has to definitely do something for developers to take the initiative.

Redevelopment enables access to land in prime markets without huge upfront investment. According to industry estimates, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which also includes satellite towns such as Thane, needs between 400,000 and 450,000 more residential units. Industry executives say this shortage can be partly met if the estimated 19,000 dilapidated buildings in southern and central Mumbai and 5,000 buildings in the suburbs are rebuilt with additional flats.

Although redevelopment looks very rosy from the outside but the pitfalls are many. Despite the apt support by the state government and influential corporate, Mumbai’s project of growth-oriented strategic planning, infrastructure building, urban renewal, governance and policy reforms is yet to discern progress. The ethnographic study of urban restructuring reveals the reason why Mumbai’s transformation efforts have remained stymied.

Redevelopment could definitely leverage quality housing structure and could be a ‘win-win’ situation for both the parties. Despite the problems, the redevelopment market is growing and attracting more players. It is also generating interest among private-equity firms.

In order to commence redevelopment project, one of the important features, highlight that redevelopment scheme has to be approved by the general body only if three-fourths of the society members are present at the meeting. The subject of redevelopment has assumed great significance because in Mumbai, majority of the buildings owned by the Co-Operative Housing Societies are quite old and in a dilapidated state.

Redevelopment definitely means change, and this change is good for you as it is aimed to offer better habitat, better living and good infrastructure facilities. CCI Newswire