Slum rehabilitation is a business, not social service

No exhaustive explanation is needed on how Mumbai loves slums People want cheap labour for household chores or commercial units it comes from slums The political class wants votes and slums are an assured votebank because a larger section of society that comes from the upper middleclass and middleclass doesnrsquot voteA small section of the society abhors slums and because their heart goes towards the lsquobettermentrsquo and a cleanup of Mumbai once known as a disciplined beautiful business hub on the west coast of India whose foundations to sustain burgeoning growth were laid by BritishThanks to the limitations due to its geographical boundaries originally a city of seven islands Mumbai kept on adding people but did not add adequate affordable housing stock People had money but no decent and affordable homes to buy There have been efforts to accommodate people such as BDD chawls spread on 92 acres and built by the British and the MHADA colonies developed by the state agency mandated to create a housing stockBut with the disproportionate growth in terms of housing stock or its quality and expectations of buyers Mumbai added slums in thousands thanks to minimum or no efforts to check or regulate them No political party be it ruling or in opposition speak on effectively checking the growth of shanties or oppose efforts to protect them The administration be it the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC or the central and state governments rarely takes any concrete efforts to control itItrsquos not that demolitions didnrsquot happen political parties demanding alternate accommodation always opposed them And thus the concept of lsquolegalisationrsquo of slums was invented The present concept of slum rehabilitation was mooted by the Shiv Sena when it promised to rehabilitate 40 lakh slums dwellers during the 1995 electionsAnd the fact is more than 18 years since the Slum Rehabilitation Authority SRA was created not more than 67 lakh people have been accommodated The figure of 40 lakh has now gone way beyond 65 lakh in 2031 slum pockets in the metropolisOf the 15 lakh plus tenements constructed under SRA hardly any structure meant to rehabilitate people can be said to be ideal in terms of architectural design and facilities But the commercial structures built in the name of recovery of cost to rehabilitate slum dwellers are architectural marvelsHow is this possible Itrsquos because an SRA project gets a floor space index FSI of more than 3 whereas it is 1 and 133 for normal projects in Mumbai city and suburbs respectively In addition the state has allowed a profitable deal to developersThe SRA rule says that an FSI of 3 will be given for projects where 500650 slums exists on a 1hectare plot and an FSI of 4 will be given in case more than 650 exist on a 1hectare plot In a bid to exploit the maximum FSI slum records are fudged Cases fought in courts are testimony to itSignificantly slum rehab projects require less investment as slum land comes at dirtcheap prices A slum at a prime location easily doubles profit margins The developer in SRA is allowed to maintain very little open space as compared to a normal housing project In simple terms a developer in SRA is allowed construction of 2700 sq ft on a 1000 sq ft plot Besides the premium payable to BMC for this is just 10 per cent of the existing rateMost importantly the transfer of development right TDR generated at SRA projects offers astronomical returns to the builder Today the market rate of slum TDR is the highest it was Rs 4000 per sq ft some time back The TDR of a recreational ground RG or a public ground PG comes with high premium rates payable to the BMC but slum TDR is merely 10 per cent of the normal premium rateAbove all the slum TDR is allowed to be utilised in corridor areas ie areas falling within the vicinity of Mumbai railway tracks and Express highways It is Swami Vivekanand Road in the western suburbs and Lal Bahadur Shashtri Road in the eastern suburbs where property rates are always high Other types of TDRs are not allowed in these areas Given the market rates of commercial and residential properties in Mumbai an SRA developer earns mindboggling profitsGiven these facts slum rehab projects are hot cakes in the Mumbai property market involving developers and their godfathers sitting in the corridors of power No developer worth his salt can say he does business without political patronage read involvement So here comes the legalisation of maximum of slums It will be on till the day the city crumbles downright The writer is Political Editor MiD DAY