Dilapidated or Not, It’s Home Over Life for These Mumbaikars

“The thought of waiting for my home for nine years keeps me awake at night,” say residents of dilapidated buildings.

‘Home’ or ‘life’?

When faced with this question, Jaspal Nagpal would choose home. The 50-year-old resident of Punjabi Camp Colony at Sion Koliwada in Mumbai has spent his childhood in the building where his family moved in around 1958. Today, his home is crumbling and is dilapidated, but moving out is not an option for Jaspal and his family.

We bought this flat in 1958 after we came to India as refugees from Pakistan. My father bought this flat. The BMC has been giving us eviction notices for 16 years now, but they are not giving us any alternative accommodation. They ask us to make our own arrangements otherwise the MHADA will redevelop our building, but we don’t trust the MHADA. I don’t want to leave my home.

Jaspal Nagpal, resident of a dilapidated building in Sion

Around 1,200 families living in 25 buildings in the colony reiterated Jaspal. They are not ready to move out of their homes, despite multiple eviction notices by the BMC, unless they are first given an alternative place of residence in the same area.

However, the danger of living in these buildings is not one they can turn a blind eye to.

“People keep asking us to at least repair the building from outside, but that won’t make much of a difference because small chunks of the ceiling keep falling inside our houses. The entire structure has become very weak,” said Sheela Gawri, another resident in one of the buildings of the colony. But despite the condition inside her apartment, Sheela too is hesitant to move out.

There are over 16,000 dilapidated buildings across Mumbai and over 700 of these have been classified as very dangerous, according to a BMC survey. Most of the dilapidated buildings are situated in areas like Byculla, Wadala, Sewri, Parel, Ghatkopar, and Kurla.

While some residents have vacated their buildings before monsoon, fearing it may collapse, most chose to stay on. While they constantly fear a building collapse, their fear of a redevelopment project going wrong is greater.

Have you seen the building next to ours? They are waiting for their home for over nine years now. What if this happens to us and the builder stops paying rent as well? The thought keeps me awake at night.

Harishchandra Kanaujia, resident of a dilapidated building

Seventy-year-old Harishchandra Kanaujia has witnessed a series of delayed redevelopment projects around his residence in Mumbai’s Chembur area. This has made him extremely cautious about vacating his home. For over eight years now, he’s been trying to come to a consensus with his neighbours about appointing a builder to redevelop their building, but there’s been no breakthrough yet.

“It’s extremely difficult to live here. Sometimes, the water line is disconnected and sometimes electricity, but what can we do? This is home. We can’t leave before we get another home in exchange for this one,” said Kanaujia’s neighbour, Lakhvinder Kaur, pinning her hopes on the BMC to repair their building.

In many cases, to avoid a long-drawn legal tussle, members of cooperative housing societies attempt to come to a consensus about the appointment of a developer for their project beforehand.

In Sunil Vijan’s case, however, that was not an option. Since Sunil and his neighbours were allotted their homes about 60 years ago, they have not formed a housing society till date. This makes the task of making a crucial decision on redevelopment extremely difficult.

Since we haven’t formed a housing society, we may own our little apartments, but the land conveyance is not in our name. Now, when I take the initiative to form a society, my neighbours have different sets of conditions. Almost 20 builders have approached us for redevelopment, but imagine trying to bring 1200 families to a consensus. Every such initiative has failed. 

Sunil Vijan, resident of a dilapidated building in Sion

Very often, even the reluctance of one housing society member ends up stalling redevelopment projects for years, as it did in the case of Maitri Park Housing Society in Mumbai’s Chembur.

“In 2008, Maitri Park Colony went in for redevelopment. This was supposed to be developed in four phases but we are still stuck in the first phase. Buildings have been constructed but four families are not willing to move out despite being allotted flats already. About 150 other families are stuck because of this,” said Bhagwan Thadani, the secretary of the Maitri Park Co-Op Housing Society. Because of this, the project remains unfinished even nine years later.

Fourty-year-old Mohinder Rijhwani, one of the four residents who refuses to move out of the dilapidated building in Maitri Park, says that the matter is now sub-judice. “There is a dispute over the area. They have included the balcony too in the carpet area of the new apartment,” said Rijhwani.

In order to speed up the process of redevelopment, the Maharashtra government is now planning to amend the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act and ensure only 51 percent tenants and owners need to give their consent for a project to take off for redevelopment. This move could help thousands of Mumbaikars, who are still stuck in crumbling homes, look forwards to living safely.