Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Houses for all is the need of today' that was published in Newsband

Houses for all is the need of today

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: It is difficult for many people in Navi Mumbai to buy a house. They find the price of a house too high and hence unable to buy it. They then prefer to stay in rental places till they are able to amass enough money to be able to afford to buy a flat.

What is CIDCO (City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra) doing for such people? CIDCO has done a lot for development work in Navi Mumbai but what they have done is not enough. Many things more need to be done.

The houses that CIDCO built at the early stage of formation of Navi Mumbai are found to be in a dilapidated condition now. CIDCO had come up with JN type buildings in 1984-85 but even these buildings appear as if they will collapse any time.

Thus there are two problems relating to houses in Navi Mumbai. The first problem is there are many residents here who can’t afford a house and the second problem is there are many residing in buildings which might fall anytime.

Most of these dilapidated buildings built by CIDCO are in Vashi. CIDCO has indeed constructed strong houses but they are located in Kharghar and Panvel. Even if CIDCO agrees to let people of dilapidated buildings in Vashi reside in Kharghar of Panvel, the question that arises is whether these residents will prefer to shift from Vashi to those faraway places? The right thing for CIDCO to do in such a case would be to construct tough houses for these residents in Vashi itself.

The State Government has been time and again promising to allot to these people an increased FSI of 2.5 for redevelopment of old buildings. But this promise has yet to be kept.

CIDCO had once built for Adivasis many flats but after the construction of these houses they were found to be of poor condition. These buildings have now developed cracks, leakages and other damages.

If CIDCO authorities make up their minds they can do justice to thousands of city residents who are without their own flats. In fact CIDCO has made a plan to make available houses for certain number of people per year. If CIDCO lives up to this plan, it will prove to be a relief for many city residents.

It is true that CIDCO has constructed more than a lakh houses which is less than what the Private Sector has provided to the residents of the city. But one should take the quality of the houses too into consideration. It is not enough to just construct houses. These structures should be tough enough to last for a long time.

When flats become too costly, the people then prefer to live in slums. This proves beneficial to slumlords who go out of the way to make available houses in slums at affordable prices. These slumlords do not make much demands to the buyers of their houses and hence there is a terrific demand for slum houses.

Lack of enough houses also leads to another curse called encroachment. When people don’t get a house to live in, they illegally encroach into whichever land available and construct their shanties over there. This creates a big problem for CIDCO and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) who have to time and again conduct demolition drive.

CIDCO is not only accused of constructing weak houses but they are also blamed for the poor condition of the roads they have constructed in the city. No sooner they construct a road, it is found that these roads develop a big number of potholes which cause great inconvenience to the drivers and thus there is a rise in the rate of accidents even. Another inconvenience that the vehicle drivers face is that they find lack of enough parking spaces in the city owing to which one finds light and heavy vehicles being parked anywhere on the road and this leads to long queue of vehicles and traffic jams.

Since CIDCO cannot do justice to entire population of Navi Mumbai in the matter of housing, we find many private builders having come forward and formed builders’ associations to rescue these poor residents without houses. They hold property exhibitions and fairs where they guide the people in the matter of obtaining houses which they can afford. In these exhibitions, they see to it that there are flats made available for all the economic classes. These private builders deserve to be commended for this excellent contribution to the city residents. In these exhibitions, people are also made aware of the existence of real estate agents who are frauds and the residents are cautioned to keep away from such fraudsters.

Other problems that exist in the city are relating to debris being dumped at wrong places and destruction of mangroves taking place in large scale in order to make space for construction houses. We find environmental experts time and again warning CIDCO as well as private builders to take care not to disturb the environment and to maintain perfect eco system. Let’s hope that both of them pay heed to this warning before it might become too late.