New homes for sanitation staff
After a delay of over five years, the BMC has decided to construct 28,000 tenements for its conservancy workers.
As an initial step in this direction, the BMC has earmarked four sites — Walpakhadi in Dongri, Gautam Nagar in Andheri, Panchsheel Nagar in Bhandup and Cochin Street in Fort — to reconstruct buildings that will accommodate civic conservancy workers in the first phase. A provision of `50 crore has been proposed in the budget for this.
In 2008, the civic body had announced the project — Ashray (shelter) — for civic conservancy workers. Currently, there are 28,018 workers, who are engaged in sweeping the city’s streets and shifting garbage to dumping grounds.
However, only 6,000 staff quarters, most of them dilapidated, are available for them at 39 locations across the city. Of the 36 locations that house the existing staff, 17 are in the island city, 10 in the western suburbs and nine in the eastern suburbs. Under Ashray, existing chawl-like structures will be redeveloped in addition to creating housing in locations, where there are no quarters.
However, five years on, the project was yet to be launched due to several hurdles and the civic administration’s apathy. Earlier, the BMC had decided to undertake the redevelopment on PPP basis. However, under this scheme, only 21,000 staff quarters were made available after deducting saleable floor space index (FSI) as the developers were asking for 7,000 tenements for commercial use. Hence, the BMC has now decided to develop these municipal plots phase-wise using municipal funds. “The BMC has proposed to utilise 4 FSI so that all 28,018 employees can be given accommodation. We are in the process of seeking approval of the state government for getting the FSI,” said municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte.
The Ashray project will offer self-contained one-bedroom houses to civic conservancy workers. The total cost of the project will be approximately `1,800 crore and will require about six years to complete.
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