300-Acre Education Hub To Come Up In Third Mumbai

The successful redevelopment of the first phase of the Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) or famously known as BDD chawls, with keys being handed over to 556 of the over 15,000 residents, marks a significant beginning for Asia’s largest urban redevelopment project in the housing sector of Mumbai. The journey of the 556 residents from 160 sq ft to 500 sq ft houses, has been marked with much political churning with the chawl residents being historically divided into various community specific groups like Maharashtrians, Dalits and even Telugu residents. Spread over 92 acres in Worli, Naigaum and Sewri, the 206 three-storied chawls housing about 15,593 residential and 960 commercial units will now be housed in 68 buildings of minimum 19-34 storied. The project will be subsidized thanks to eight sale component buildings of 41-66 plus storied plush buildings. Incidentally, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has been battling charges of the Marathi-manoos, the native man, being displaced out of Mumbai, urged the BDD residents to not sell their flats and safeguard it for their future generation akin to family gold. On the same day, while addressing a builder’s body, Fadnavis lamented how despites sops being offered to developers, they had not helped in making housing affordable for the common man. He wondered why projects kept lagging behind schedule at a time when the world had technology to build 80-storied buildings within 120 days. Meanwhile, in another major leap, after developing Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, the Maharashtra government is planning to develop an education hub termed third Mumbai. Spread over 300 acres, the educational hub, close to the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport has plans to host 14 foreign varsities with residential facilities for one lakh students.