It took MHADA 40 yrs to build over 4L homes

Data from the state economic survey, presented in the upper and lower houses of the state during the budget session, shows that the state's housing authority, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), has built a mere 4.68 lakh affordable homes since it was established in 1977.

While the Centre's ambitious Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, launched in 2015, aims to provide affordable housing to all by 2022, MHADA, which was established with the aim to construct affordable homes in the state, in its 40 years, has constructed and redeveloped 4,68,940 dwelling units between 1977 and 2017.

Homes built by MHADA fall under four economic categories — Higher Income Group (HIG), Middle Income Group (MIG), Lower Income Group (LIG) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). The official data of MHADA reveals that while the number of homes offered under HIG stood at 14 in 2015-16, the number doubled from 102 in 2016-17 to 204 in 2017-18. In 2015-16, only 14 homes were offered to HIG. Meanwhile, the number of homes offered under EWS dropped from 4,139 in 2016-17 to 1,153 in 2017-18.

The MIG and LIG categories saw similar drops over the years. In 2015-16, MIG had 2,989 homes, in 2016-17 it had 1,167 homes and the number further fell to 546 in 2017-18. Similarly, in 2015-16, LIG had 5,240 homes which fell to 1,103 in 2016-17 and 898 in 2017-18.

In the case of Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), since its inception in 1995 up to December 2017, the number of completed projects stood at 1,749. Over the past 22 years, 1,88,127 families residing in slums have been rehabilitated. In 2017-18, around 31 SRA projects were sanctioned, 116 were completed and 13,336 families were rehabilitated, according to official data of SRA.

(MHADA's 2017-18 figures are until December 2017)