Looks like Naigaon BDD Chawl redevelopment is headed the Dharavi way. Fresh bids may be invited as the current contractor has pulled out and MHADA’s effort to convince them hasn’t yielded any results.
By Varun Singh
MHADA’s troubles in regards to redevelopment of Naigaon BDD Chawl has increased further.
The ambitious project has been in controversy since, the news of L&T opting out of the project broke in August.
Also Read: Has L&T Pulled Out Of Naigaon BDD Redevelopment?
At Naigaon BDD there are a total of 42 Chawls, comprising of a total 9869 tenants. The funds required for the redevelopment is Rs 2,800 crore +.
According to officials in MHADA, Naigaon BDD project has been discussed at length. At the same time, several discussions to convince L&T to continue with the project took place.
But it appears several round of meetings have yielded no result and now MHADA is aiming at writing to the empowered state committee.
People close to the development say that MHADA shall soon write to the state government to tell them that talks with L&T hasn’t given them the expected results.
“The letter will be on the lines that fresh tenders for Naigaon BDD chawl redevelopment be floated so that the project moves ahead.”
A Source close to the development
When contacted Anil Diggikar, Vice President and CEO, MHADA he said the letter hasn’t yet been written but said yes when asked whether a letter on these lines is being written.
The fate of Naigaon BDD matches with that of Dharavi to a large extent. Dharavi Redevelopment has seen three tenders but nothing much happened.
Recently the state cabinet cancelled the tender for Dharavi that was floated by the Devendra Fadnavis led government in 2018.
Also Read: Dharavi Redevelopment Tender Cancelled
MHADA in August as per reports received a letter from construction giant L&T expressing their desire to discontinue with Naigaon BDD redevelopment.
Post which there were several meetings held with the construction company, but things didn’t work out.
It is believed that L&T is unhappy that in spite of it receiving the contract three years ago, the work wasn’t moving ahead.
As per the work order issued by MHADA on April 17, 2017, L&T had made a security deposit towards performance security via bank guarantees worth Rs 145.14 crore.
During the Devendra Fadnavis government, tenders were floated for all the three BDD chawl redevelopment. These are NM Joshi, Worli and Naigaon.
All this will delay the dreams of tenants wanting to move into a spacious apartments, from their compact ones right now.
Each tenant post redevelopment is to get a 2 BHK apartment measuring 500 sq ft in lieu of the current one room that they reside in.
The redeveloped apartments will have two bathrooms, while currently they share common bathroom located at every floor.
