Sunday, June 28, 2015


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Why nobody wants you to have an affordable home in Mumbai

by  Sep 17, 2012

It’s one of Mumbai’s supreme ironies: people have jobs, sometimes even halfways-decent jobs, but most of them can never boast of a home.
With rising real estate prices, more and more people with perfectly respectable jobs cannot find affordable housing to buy or to rent. More than half the population lives in slums. But who is responsible for such a social imbalance? Is it just the builder who wants to maximise his profit? Is it the government, which fails to provide a single-window clearance  to speed up the approval process for builders? Or  is it the buyer who wants the maximum return on his investment?
In 2010, the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry and the state government inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aim of developing five lakh affordable homes in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Two years later, the homes remain a distant dream. Realtors cite their poor financial health, a slowdown in the economy, rising cost of construction material like cement and steel, restricted floor space index and project delays as the reasons for shying away from affordable housing in Mumbai.
Says Paras Gundecha, president of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI-CREDAI), “The real estate sector has virtually come to a standstill due to the innumerable delays that developers encounter.” This delays the completion of projects, leaving developers with no option but to pass on 25 percent additional costs to the consumers, he added. Builders bank on speedy execution to control costs and keep prices low, and by delaying approvals regulators blunt  low-cost housing  initiatives.

With rising real estate prices, more and more people with perfectly respectable jobs cannot find affordable housing to buy or to rent. AFP
But the truth is that neither the government nor the developer thinks that affordable housing is essential. “Why should they? After all, developers are businessmen and not social entreprenures,”says Anirudh Walhal, Director at property research firm DTZ.  When affordable housing is not your core business and when there is enough demand for your regular projects, builders are bound to stay away from affordable housing given the low margins. Only a few listed companies  like Godrej and DLF, which have a reputation to maintain and are accountable to shareholders, migrate to middle-income projects  from luxury projects when recession sets in in order to offset the impact of unsold inventory in luxury homes.  But here too  houses are sold to the investor and not  genuine buyers – as in the case of  Godrej Properties’ Gurgaon project, where the company sold 50 percent of the flats on the first day of launch, a realty expert told Firstpost on condition of anonymity. Typically, end-users visit a site three to four times before making their down payment, not buy on the first day of launch.
In any case, affordable housing requires support from the government, given the high land cost. Without a proper policy or a regulator in place, the role of  state agencies in facilitating affordable housing is limited by the sheer pressure from the politician-builder nexus, as the case with Maharashta Housing and Development Authority, or Mhada, demonstrates.
According to a research paper by PH.D Scholar Sahil Gandhi published by the National Institute of Urban Affairs, only 5-6 percent of Mumbai’s population can afford a house in Greater Mumbai. Given the current property rates, income distribution and institutional lending rates, 70 percent of Mumbai’s housing demand can only be met if property is priced Rs 20-25 lakh, he argues. This wouldn’t even cover the construction cost for developers in a city where land prices have risen by 200-300 percent in just the past four years.
“The real value of ‘affordability’ is Rs 15 lakh. At this price, a developer will lose his shirt because he will have to make houses  in the outskirts to gain cost advantage,” says Sanjay Dutt, MD at real estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield.
This, however, is the true reality of Mumbai. The aam admi has to live at least 60-90 km away from the city if he can even dream of owning a house.
Sunil Makhija (35) is a clerk at a private bank in South Mumbai’s Opera House; his wife works in a beauty parlour in Kandivili. Their combined monthly income is less than Rs 35,000. Makhija has two options: either own a house in Karjat, 90 km away from Mumbai, and spend five hours commuting everyday, or  live in Mumbai’s slums because of its proximity to the city. Makhija chose the first option. His only saving grace, however, is that Karjat is well connected to the city by local trains that run frequently, and a small house can be bought for Rs 5 lakh.
While Makhija  has to spend  six hours a day commuting  everyday,  Pankaj Kapoor, MD at realty research firm Liasas Foras, says  a low-income housing scheme only works best when affordability and habitation needs go hand-in-hand. Most of the people opting for low-cost housing work in the city, but projects are coming up outside the city. There  are no incentives to move out of the city, in terms of facilities like schools, hospitals etc. “These are nothing but ghost townships,” he argues.
Kapoor adds that there are hardly any genuine buyers because these areas are not habitable and developers have failed to make community housing possible as the net intensity of life is still only in the MMR region.Take the case of Rashmi Housing in Naigon which is offering one-bhks at Rs 450 a square foot. Even though the project boasts of a 47 percent price appreciation in the past two years, according to Monitor Inclusive Market, the overall area is not developed with smaller roads being almost non-existent.
The only solution is if government and state agencies take up the matter in their own hands and build sound infrastructure along with housing units to support sustainable living.
Which is perhaps why others who faced Makhija’s dilemma opted instead to live like squatters in the city and pay much more for basic amenities like water, power and sanitation, but hoping that they will benefit from the next slum rehabiliation plan.)
According to an EPW article by Shirish B Patel,  81 police inspectors and 4,413 police constables live in slums in Mumabi  “There could be no more glaring instance of the city providing perfectly legal jobs – in this case the job holders are officers of the law – and at the same time providing no place for them to stay,” he argues.
The Planning Commission has pegged the total shortage of dwelling units in urban India at  26.53 million with low-income households and the poor facing the maximum brunt. But the affordable model’ has been all but abandoned because there is a fundamental infrastructure and structural problem in Mumbai. The real shortage of land has been further exacerbated artificially by poorly conceived central, state and municipal regulations. “By excessively controlling construction in centrally  located areas and by making land recycling difficult, some  regulations tend to push urban development towards  the periphery,” says Ashutosh Limaye, head research, Jones Lang Laselle. ”Strict regulations, when not implemented correctly, lead to rampant  corruption as there are multiple stakeholders with large stakes in  real estate development.”
This was especially true in the National Textile Corporation mill deals in Mumbai in 2005: NTC sold its five mill land parcels at record rates to realty majors such as DLF, Indiabulls, Lodha and Kohinoor group triggering a ripple effect that struck at the very base of housing affordability. Given the prices at which mill land deals took place,  no project was viable, said Kapoor. “Some even  raked in a profit by getting the government to increase the FSI in specific cases. However they effectively jacked up property prices across Mumbai, which ultimately drove people to peripheral areas such as Kalyan-Dombivli, Vasai-Virar and Mira-Bhayander,” he added.
Patel says in his EPW article that “past chief ministers have withheld signing orders pertaining to urban development until the contents had first been run past a builder friend.  Not all of them will want more land on the market to enable more affordable housing – whether it is salt pan lands or Port Trust lands or any other.”
And it is this politician-builder nexus that has prevented the development of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, a  22-km freeway-grade road-bridge  that is set to begin in Sewri, South Mumbai, crossing Thane Creek north of Elephanta Island and end at Nhava Sheva.  The state government cites paucity of funds as the reason for delaying the project, but the link would  cut travel time to just 20 minutes, opening up surplus land, which would will bring down Mumbai property prices.
The problem that inhibits affordable housing cannot be tackled by developers alone. Unless the government fast-tracks sound, people-oriented policies and  engages citizens in discussions at various stages of the preparation of plans and guidelines, it cannot be solved. Secondly, “slum-related policies should focus on providing infrastructure to existing slums and implementing measures that restrict the densification of slums as well as the formation of new settlements,” said Gandhi in his report. This can only be done if Mhada takes the responsibility of at least  60-70 percent of the rehabilitation  and ensures low-income buyers are not squeezed  out by the better informed investor class.

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MN Laksham Veedu

[one hundred thousand houses-10,00,00- for poor was a  Kerala government project successfully completed in 1972.Maharashtra government is not pro poor,may be  because of corruption]

One lakh house scheme was a model scheme implemented under M.N. Govindan Nair, Housing Minister in the 1972 Achutha Menon Ministry. After 36 years  the present condition of most of the houses so constructed are very pathetic mainly because of three decades of aging without routine repairs and maintenance, Government vide GO(MS)57/2004/Hsg dt.26/11/04 sanctioned ,  a scheme for the reconstruction of these houses
Renovation of One Lakh Housing Scheme (MNOLHS)

Under the new scheme, which is named “MN Lakshamveedu Punar Nirmana Padhathi”, reconstruction of dilapidated twin houses into single units and reconstruction of single houses will be implemented through the Board for an estimated cost of Rs.50,000/-.  The Government Subsidy will be 25,000/- for General Category, 37500 for SC Category and Rs.50,000 for ST Category and the balance amount shall be met by the Local Bodies / Voluntary Organizations/Philanthropic Individuals.  Government sanction received.  14992 applications received and submitted to the Board for approval and 8326 applications has been   approved by the Board on        26-6-08.  In the One Lakh Houses Renovation Scheme for 2004-05, 1926 houses has been completed till date and Rs.388.60 lakhs has been disbursed.  A One Day workshop has been conducted in Trivandrum on 10/7/08 which was inaugurated  by the Hon. Minister for Housing for the formulation of guidelines for  this scheme.The State Government have only Rs.28 Crores as against the total requirement of Rs.178 Crores towards subsidy in which 17 Crores already released.
A scheme to renovate these houses at the cost of Rs. 50,000 each. Rs. 25000 as subsidy and Rs. 25000 as contribution from Panchayats/NGOs etc.  for common categories 75 percent of the amount as subsidy for SC and 100 percent as subsidy for ST) is being implemented. Government has set apart the income from Vishu Bumper Lottery for this purpose.Rs.5 Crores  allotted in the State Budget 2008-09 and Rs.6 Crores collected  from the Vishu Bumper Lottery  

Saturday, June 27, 2015

'Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan': 30 vintage, black and white photos of Bombay from the last 100 years you need to see as the city goes to polls today

Posted on: 09:56 AM IST Apr 24, 2014
To know Bombay is to love Bombay. If you've ever lived in one of the world's most populous cities, you know that Mumbai sneaks up on you when you least expect it to. This is a city of contrasts - housing one of the world's biggest slums in perfect harmony with palatial mansions of ultra-rich movie stars. This is a city that famously lets you be. The photos and illustrations from colonial times show a spacious, sprawling city with the wide arch of Marine Drive bearing a deserted look while trams plied on empty roads. A fascinating photo shows sex workers standing behind bars. These 30 vintage photos of Bombay will call you home.

If you have grown up in Mumbai, you would be hit with sweet nostalgia when you see these vintage photos of the city


Sculptures of Hindu deities in the Elephanta Caves on Elephanta Island, Bombay (now Mumbai) Harbour, circa 1890. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


A view over south Bombay (now Mumbai) from Cumbala Hill, circa 1890. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


A Hanuman temple on the Kalbadevi Road in Bombay (now Mumbai), circa 1890. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


A view of Rampart Row, Bombay (now Mumbai), with Watson’s Hotel on the right, circa 1890. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


Hornby Road in Bombay, circa 1930. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


A view of Victoria Station, Mumbai (Bombay), circa 1900. Built in 1888 to a design by Frederick William Stevens, it is now known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


A view of The Municipal Hall in Mumbai (Bombay), circa 1900. Designed by Frederick William Stevens, the building was completed in 1893. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


11th May 1931: L to R, P P Nazir and T H Dastur from Bombay are in the cockpit of a Moth ‘Spirit of St Christopher’ at Brooklands School of Flying. (Photo by A. Hudson/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)


21st August 1947: Crowds in the streets of Bombay to see illuminations and fireworks to celebrate the handing over of power in India. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)


Circa 1955: A policeman from Guam on Marine Drive, checking a traffic list in front of his Public Works truck, provided by the US Navy Government. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)


Circa 1955: A poster advertising the film ‘Patat Pawan’ on a street in Bombay. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)


Circa 1955: A group of children having a ride on a camel in Bombay. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)


Circa 1955: A man sleeping outside the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)


Circa 1970: Customers queue outside a dry food shop in Bombay, India. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)


Police charge demonstrators at the Esplanade Maidan in Bombay with lathis. The protest was organised by the National Congress Party. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)


1891: An illustration of Anglo-Indian life on the steps of a Bombay hotel. (Photo by HultonArchive/Illustrated London News/Getty Images)


Circa 1935: Borah Bazaar, Bombay, India. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


14th August 1939: Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of Royal Ulster Rifles disembarking from a Bristol Bombay aircraft at RAF Yatesbury during one of the largest aerial troop-carrying movements in Britain. The men are bound for manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)


16th May 1960: On May 17th, 1960, the performances of the famous Passion plays start again in Oberammergau. Each performance in which 1400 people of Oberammergau take part, lasts for seven hours. Sochiko Nozaki a music student of Tokyo (left) and Gauri Isvaran of Bombay who studies languages, attended the last rehearsal on May 15th. Here, policeman Rudolf Ludwig shows the two students the sights of Oberammergau. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)


August 1955: A fisherman, knee deep in water, casting his net just off the shore at the fishing colony of Arnala, about 40 miles from Bombay. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)


1910: The Maduraroyal toll-gate at the 8th mile point on the Madras to Bombay trunk road. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


1947: The presentation of colours to the Bombay Home Guard, part of the celebrations of Indian Independence Day at Bombay. B G Kher, Bombay Premier, salutes the flag. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)


1930: A crowd of demonstrators in conflict with the police during elections at Bombay, India. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


1933: Indian cricketers Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu, left (known as C K Nayudu, 1895 – 1967) and Nanik Amarnath Bharadwaj (known as Lala Bharadwaj 1911 – 2000) coming out to bat during the First Test Match against England in Bombay. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)


Circa 1915: Trams passing the grand facade of Victoria Railway Station in Bombay. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)


Circa 1912: A sea angling festival in progress on Marine Drive, Scarborough. (Photo by Alfred Hind Robinson/A H Robinson/Getty Images)


1st May 1963: A little girl balancing on a fellow beggar’s hand on a street in Bombay. (Photo by Mike Geary/Fox Photos/Getty Images)


Circa 1930: A Bombay shopkeeper snatches a rest. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)


Sex workers kept behind bars in a red light district of Bombay. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)


Indian statesmen Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 1869 – 1948) and Jawaharlal Nehru (1869 – 1964) (left), known as Pandit Nehru, in conversation at the All-India Congress committee meeting at Bombay. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images) 

 

Days of the Raj: Huge collection of photographs depicting life in India a century ago are found in a shoebox

  • 178 plate-glass negatives discovered inside a size-nine Peter Lord box in Edinburgh
  • Some images were taken in 1912, archivists confirm
  • Unknown photographer may have been British civil servant in Calcutta
A tennis party pose among tea trolleys: full-length dresses and sun hats for the ladies; shirt-sleeve order, neat moustaches and optional pipe for the men.
This is just one of many photographs showing life in India at least a century ago - and they were all found in a shoebox.
One image shows buildings in the city of Calcutta lit up over the Lal Dighi body of water, commemorating a British royal visit, while another depicts ships arriving at the Chandpal Ghat, the main landing site for visitors to the city along the Hooghly River.
All 178 of the plate-glass negatives were found inside a size-nine Peter Lord shoebox by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) in Edinburgh.
A tennis party (one, far right, with a pipe) poses among tea trolleys in this photo taken in India around a century ago
A tennis party poses (one, far right, with a pipe) among tea trolleys in this photo taken in India around a century ago

Two men stick dance in front of a crowd in Maidan, Calcutta. All 178 images were found in a Peter Lord shoebox in Edinburgh and are about 100 years old
Two men stick dance in front of a crowd in Maidan, Calcutta. The dance represents a mock fight between legendary warrior Durga and the mighty demon king Mahishasura

Buildings on the south-east side of Lal Dighi,  Calcutta, lit at night for the 1912 British royal visit, when King George V and Queen Mary visited
Buildings on the south-east side of Lal Dighi, Calcutta, lit at night for the 1912 British royal visit by King George V and Queen Mary. All 178 images were found in a Peter Lord shoebox in Edinburgh and are about 100 years old

Archivists have confirmed some of the images were definitely taken in 1912, when King George V and Queen Mary visited Calcutta
Archivists have confirmed some of the images were definitely taken in 1912, when the royals visited. It was the only trip by a British monarch to India as Emperor of the subcontinent
King George V and the Queen arrive in Delhi in 1911, where he was proclaimed Emperor
King George V and the Queen arrive in Delhi in 1911
They are said to have been taken in the country at the time of the British Raj and it is thought the negatives were untouched for almost 100 years.
Archivists at RCAHMS have already confirmed that some of the images were definitely taken in 1912, when King George V and Queen Mary visited Calcutta. It was the only visit by a British monarch to India as Emperor of the subcontinent.
Some of the photographs show the city's buildings lit up at night in tribute to the royal visit.
Little else is known about the images and the photographer, prompting a search for clues as to his or her identity.
One theory is that the photographer was a British civil servant in Calcutta, or was connected to the jute trade, as many Scots were said to be at the time.
There is a Scottish cemetery in the city that dates back to the time of the British Raj, which has recently been cleaned up and recorded.
RCAHMS hopes that members of the public and photography enthusiasts might be able to shed more light on this discovery.
All 178 of the plate-glass negatives were found inside a size-nine Peter Lord shoebox by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in Edinburgh
The images - all plate-glass negatives - were discovered by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in Edinburgh
An unknown man and woman pose for the camera. The images - all plate-glass negatives - were discovered by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in Edinburgh
A crowded riverside with bathers at Chandpal Ghat in Calcutta, were among the photographs
A crowded riverside with bathers at Chandpal Ghat in Calcutta, the main landing site for visitors to the city along the Hooghly River
A street scene in an unknown location, capturing life in India at least a century ago
A street scene in an unknown location, capturing life in India at least a century ago
They also approached John Falconer, curator of photographs at the British Library, who helped to identify some of the locations and remarked on the high quality and beauty of the images, but so far the identity of the photographer remains a mystery.
Claire Sorensen, RCAHMS architectural historian, said: 'We don't know for sure how they came to be in our collection because we receive archive material from countless different sources, ranging from the archives kept by architectural practices to generous public donations.
'Sometimes we take in large amounts of material at once, and often documentation for historical deposits does not exist.
Ships arriving at Chandpal Ghat, the main landing site for visitors to the city along the Hooghly River
Ships arriving at Chandpal Ghat, while crowds gather by the docks
A Jain temple complex in Calcutta. RCAHMS hopes that members of the public and photography enthusiasts might be able to shed more light on this discovery
A Jain temple complex in Calcutta. RCAHMS hopes that members of the public and photography enthusiasts might be able to shed more light on the photographic discovery

A street hairdresser giving a 'Hindustani haircut' (pudding bowl) in Strand Road South, Calcutta
A street hairdresser giving a 'Hindustani haircut' (pudding bowl) in Strand Road South, Calcutta

Celebrations for the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Calcutta in 1912
Celebrations for the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Calcutta in 1912
'Over time, all this new material will be inspected and catalogued as part of our collection - undergoing conservation work where necessary - and then made available to the public.
'It's fantastic that a small shoe box contained such a treasure-trove of photographic imagery, but in some ways it's not unusual.
'Our experience as an archive has shown us that some of the most interesting discoveries can be made in the most unlikely of places.'
A Muhurram (sacred month) procession through a crowded Calcutta street
A Muhurram (sacred month) procession through a crowded Calcutta street with tazieh theatre performance in the background. Tazieh drama re-enacts heroic tales of love and sacrifice
Calcutta is lit up for the royal visit; right, a group seated in two ferry canoes moored in a stream at an unknown location
Waterside with a group of washermen at a dhobi ghat (open-air laundry zone)
Waterside with a group of washermen at a dhobi ghat (open-air laundry zone)