Using Cluster Development, the Mumbai Airport's slum will be redeveloped: Devendra Fadnavis

The cluster development strategy will be used to redevelop the slum at the same location in an effort to free up the much-needed area that is currently occupied by slums and ease the operations of Mumbai airport. In a debate in the state assembly about the current deteriorating conditions of Mumbai's infrastructure and the slow pace of slum redevelopment and rehabilitation, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the housing portfolio, announced that this would become a part of the land free that would be transferred to the airport.

 

What slums will be rebuilt first and how much vacant land can be given to the airport's operating company, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), were not specifically mentioned by Fadnavis. However, a senior housing department official informed the Free Press Journal, "The government will pick which slums will be taken up for reconstruction after talks with the MIAL and

Airport Authority of India. Slums are typically found in the aviation zone, on property that is intended for the building of a rehabilitation component and on property that the airport operator has designated for commercial exploitation.

 

Slums outside of these three categories, however, might not currently be taken into consideration for cluster development. The rehabilitation of slum residents, he continued, will open up 200 acres for aeronautical development. The airport in Mumbai is stretched out on 1,981 acres, of which around 1,169 acres (or 58%) are used for runways, terminal buildings, and aircraft hangars. 15.58%, or around 308 acres, of the land, has been encroached upon, while 7% of it is unoccupied or undeveloped. A total of 80,000 slum families live on 276 acres of the airport's 1,875 acres of land at this time.

 

 

Image Courtesy: Twitter @Dev_Fadnavis