Month: December 2023

The state issued a notification on Thursday to eliminate affordable housing in the No-Development Zones (NDZs) of the city, renaming them as Special Development Zones (SDZs). The focus will now be on high-density slums, which will be the only areas referred to as SDZs.

The notification reintroduces the low floor space index of 0.025 on NDZs and allows tourism development, educational institutions, ground-plus-one residential structures, IT parks etc.

The urban development department’s notification invited objections and suggestions for sanctioning the few remaining Excluded Parts (EPs) of the Development Plan (DP) 2034 covering SDZs. The DP contains two components – Sanctioned and Excluded. The Sanctioned Parts are provisions ready for implementation, while the EP have newly introduced provisions for which the government invites suggestions and objections from the public.

Former CM Uddhav Tha-ckeray had refused to sanction these EPs as he had considered them ecologically damaging and detrimental to Mumbai. Thackeray, sources said, had signed a detailed note stating his reasons for not sanctioning SDZs. Later, some landowners approached Bombay high court asking for the EPs to be sanctioned. The HC had then directed the state to decide within eight weeks. The Eknath Shinde government has now decided to scrap the SDZs, except where high-density slum areas are located.

Urban researcher Hussain Indorewala said the new notification has done away with affordable housing in SDZs. “Only densely populated slums (650 tenements per hectare) will be redeveloped through slum rehabilitation scheme on such lands,” he said. “The scrapping of affordable housing on SDZs raises the question of whether the government is reconsidering their assessment of supply and demand for affordable housing.

The biggest challenge was that there was absence of civic infrastructure on these lands. “Perhaps there were no takers for this affordable housing scheme amongst builders and hence the state decided to scrap it,” said a town planner.

Indorewala said it is unclear what kind of development the government proposes through tourism and IT park zones. “It is largely creating commercial infrastructure rather than essential infrastructure for citizens. The government must look outside Mumbai for land for tourism development and IT parks.

In an effort to curb the wastage of treated water, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s water supply department is set to implement water meters in all new buildings within its jurisdiction. This initiative is aimed at analyzing the water usage trends in neighborhoods and minimizing the significant loss of treated water.

Following a water consumption survey in the Dum Dum-Cossipore area, the city authorities have decided to expand the installation of water meters to other neighborhoods. After the initial implementation in Dum Dum-Cossipore, hundreds of households in the Mukundapur area off EM Bypass are now also receiving water meters.

The KMC is committed to fitting water meters in newly built structures, including standalone apartments and large housing complexes, to reduce wastage of treated water.

The survey in the Dum Dum-Cossipore area has alarmed some officials in the KMC water supply department, as they discovered that nearly 18,655 households were using 300 litres of water per person. The surveyors were also surprised to find a single family of five consuming 3500 litres of potable water daily. This misuse of water is concerning, especially considering the significant costs involved in collecting and treating raw water from the Hooghly.