CM moots new cluster policy, 20L city homes





A new cluster dev elopment policy for Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolit an Region (MMR) in the next three months has been prop osed by chief minister Deve ndra Fadnavis in a vision do cument he has prepared for the city and Maharashtra, reports Clara Lewis.

The Dharavi redevelopm ent scheme is to be reinitiat ed, and execution will begin within six months. The CM also considers housing a top priority and wants to create 20 lakh new homes in MMR over five years and decentral ize financial activities from ll Mumbai to the MMR. CM Devendra Fadnavis outlined plans to revive the Mithi river on the lines of the Sabarmati Katha in his vision document for the city and state. He has appointed a special officer, who is not from the bureaucracy , to strategize and implement this vision. The officer is part of the chief minister's office.

Sources said work has begun on addressing the issue of police housing in the city. "Of the 27,000 houses for cops, 7,000 are habitable while 20,000 are in a dilapidated state. Further, there is a need to provide housing for the rest of the police force that lives in terrible conditions in the city or in the distant suburbs.We are in talks with the police force on their needs," sources said.

Apart from decentralizing financial activities from the city to the MMR, the CM plans to address the issue of intra-state migration to Mumbai by developing cities and towns in other regions of the state.

He wants a Mumbai-MMR development master plan with focus on housing, education, marketplace, health, transport, security , solid waste management, environment and open spaces development. Along with the coastal road and the transharbour link, the CM is keen to develop east-west corridors such as the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road. He wants to cut daily travel time by an hour and integrate all transport systems, leading to single ticket access across MMR, states the vision document.

While the Democratic Front government had appointed Mhada to redevelop Sector 5 of Dharavi for which the master plan has already been prepared, sources said the BJP government may opt for public-private partnership.