■ MHADA will create afund with an initialcorpus of R1,000 crorefor this purpose

■ A loan will be grantedby the fund to adeveloper for 15 years atthe SBI PLR for anamount not exceedingR10 crore per borrower

■ A detailed schemewill made within threemonths after the policyis cleared

VARUN SINGHvarun.singh@mid-day.com

THE state government hascome up with a draft housingpolicy, and it has a provisionwhere a builder or a housingsociety can avail a loan fromthe government to constructbuildings and provide housingfor the Economically WeakerSection (EWS) and LowerIncome Group (LIG).

The good thing for home-buyers is that these units willbe sold to citizens with notmore than 10 per cent downpayment and the balance 90per cent will be paid by thepurchaser at the end of 15years, and only interest will beserviced by the buyer in themeantime. The other goodthing is that CooperativeHousing Societies (CHS) willbe given preference for theloan. This also will mean that

builders who actually couldn’tborrow from the banks —banks hesitate to lend moneyto this sector— will have accessto loans from the government.

Affordability, the keyThe policy claims that afford-ability is an important aspectof providing housing to theEWS/LIG strata of society.The policy further reports thatthere have been several studiesthat have indicated thatthough the need for housing isprevalent, affordability is thekey impediment and the gov-ernment is planning tointervene by providingfinance.

According to the policy, it isproposed that the MaharashtraHousing and DevelopmentAuthority (MHADA) will cre-ate a fund with an initialcorpus of R1,000 crore for this purpose.

A qualified fund managerhaving experience in providinghousing finance will managethis R1,000 crore corpus. Theselection of the fund manager

will be done through a compet-itive bidding process. Themanager will be mandated toprovide funding to developerswho are building LIG/EWStype of houses.

The fund manager will beresponsible for evaluating theproject, the credibility of thedeveloper, and will approve theloan to a developer only afterdetailed due diligence. Thepolicy specifies that existingCHS going for redevelopmentwill be given preference.

Under this scheme, a loanwill be granted by the fund to adeveloper for a period of 15years at the SBI Prime LendingRate (PLR) for an amount notexceeding R10 crore per bor-rower or the CHS.

The policy will enable indi-vidual societies to undertakeself-redevelopment. In turn,the developer or CHS will bemandated to sell units of equalvalue of LIG and EWS type inthe schemes to eligible personsin the LIG and EWS categoryon the basis of interest onlybasis with bullet repayment

(where the borrower does notpay the principal amount overthe duration of the loan, butmakes the payment only atmaturity) at the end of 15 years.

The policy states, “In casethe cost of the unit is R10 lakh,then the developer or CHS willsell the unit to LIG and EWScitizens with not more than 10per cent down payment, andthe balance 90 per cent will bepaid by the purchaser at theend of the 15 years and onlyinterest will be serviced by himin the meantime.”

The developer or CHS willbe liable to service the intereston the loan granted by the fundfor 15 years and will be liable torepay the principal at the endof 15 years. The developer’s orCHS liability to service/repaythe loan will be unconnected tothe servicing/repayment by theflat purchaser. In other wordsthe credit risk in this regardwill be always borne by thedeveloper and not the purchas-er, and it will be the developer’sliability to repay the loans tothe fund.

If the housing policy getspassed, then a detailed schemein this regard will be notifiedby the Housing department,within three months.

The department has sub-mitted the housing policy tothe government, which has totake a final call on it. It’sexpected that the policy will betabled before the Cabinet with-in a week, and the policy isexpected to sail through. Callsto Housing Minister PrakashMehta went unanswered till thetime of going to press.

02 our citysunday, may 10, 2015, mumbai, web www.mid-day.com, twitter @mid_day

Printed and published by Shaikh Latif Gaffar on behalf of Mid-Day Infomedia Ltd. Mumbai and printed at R/847/3, T.T.C. Industrial Area, M.I.D.C., Rabale, Navi Mumbai. Published at Peninsula Center, Dr. S.S. Rao Road, Near Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, Parel (East), Mumbai-400012. Editorialand advertising offices at Peninsula Centre, Dr S.S. Rao Road, Parel (East), Mumbai 400012; Telephone 7122 1450, Fax No: 2411 2009, RNI number 37610 /80 Postal Registration No MCE/262/2015-2017. Editor: Sachin Kalbag (Responsible for selection of news under the Press andRegistration of Books Act 1867)

Draft policy to makehouses affordablePolicy proposes a new scheme where societies and builders will get a government loan for building affordable housing units

File photo of a MHADA building nearKandivali Link Road

TANVI DESHPANDETanvi.deshpande@mid-day.com

AN approximately 1-km roadand a white, pucca, two-storeyed structure with agarden, has come upovernight on Sanjay GandhiNational Park (SGNP) land. And this has got theresidents of nearbyLokhandwala Complex inKandivali worried.

The structure has acropped lawn in front of itand the picture ofNanasaheb Dharmadhikariat the entrance. Believing itto be a farmhouse where ille-gal activities are takingplace, residents alerted mid-day. When we asked aroundmany were of the view that itis a forest department office,but on checking with theSGNP official it was evidentthat the forest departmenthad no inkling about theconcrete structure.

Kiran Dabholkar, assis-tant conservator of forestssaid, “We do not have anysuch office there. I think youare talking about the tempo-rary shed erected there bythe Nanasaheb Dharm-adhikari Foundation, butthat has been there for atleast two years.”

Citizens refuted theseclaims, saying the structureis fairly recent. “It is notolder than 6-8 months. Andwhy do they need an NGO todo charity for them? Don’tthey have enough resourcesthemselves? I’m confidentthat the structure has come

up before our eyes,” saidParminder Dureja, a residentof Sapphire Heights.

It was only later that aforest guard clarified that itwas an office of theNanasaheb Dharmadhikarifoundation, which does phil-anthropic work for SGNP.They have been allowed toerect this shed to keep saplings and garden-ing equipment.

“Its a temporary alu-minum structure they havebuilt to keep their saplingsand garden equipment. TheFoundation has planted atleast 15,000-17,000 trees inSGNP in the past few years.They work closely with us.We have not given themwritten permission to construct anything. We havejust allowed them a tempo-rary arrangement for themonsoon.” said forest guardSandesh Patil

To this ManoharGhanekar, another resident,said, “It all starts with tem-porary construction like this,which later leads to buildersusurping the land. If slumdwellers from Gautam Nagarare not allowed to live there,how can an NGO set up shopthere? I demand that theSGNP officials allow us toinspect it.”

SGNP is Mumbai’s onlyconnection to nature. Spreadalong the Aarey Colony, thisland has been fiercely pro-tected by locals and activists for decades to make sure itdoes not fall into the hands of builders.

People enjoying the calm of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. FILE PHOTO

Pucca structurecrops up insideSNGP; residentsquestion officialsAccording to the forest guard it is atemporary shed erected by an NGO to keep gardening equipment