With Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announcing an extra Floor Space Index (FSI) of three for cessed buildings on Friday, officials of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) are confident that it will lead to as many as 25,000 homes in South Mumbai in the next two and half years. They are expecting minimum 2,500 buildings would be redeveloped by 2015. These structures would not only have enough space to rehabilitate the existing residents but would also make space for transit camps. Even if every building puts up a minimum of 10 homes for sale, the number would automatically go up to 25,000. Consequently this would also scale down real estate prices.

According to MHADA officials, there are more than 14,000 cessed structures in the island city and most of them need urgent repairs or redevelopment. The housing authority had been pressurising the state government for more FSI as most cessed buildings are small. So they can’t be redeveloped as lower FSI is insufficient to accommodate existing tenants. It also makes it difficult for the builder to put up flats for sale to recover the cost and make profits.