HDIL to rehab Mumbai slum dwellers occupying airport land

Mumbai: Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) will soon rehabilitate and resettle about 85,000 slum dwellers occupying the Mumbai International Airport land. The rehabilitation programme is estimated to cost HDIL Rs. 27,500-mn.

HDIL entered into a contract with the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) to relocate the slum families which had encroached some 276 acres of airport land. The deal entitles HDIL close to 50 million sq ft of transfer of development rights (TDR) which can be either encashed or used elsewhere. A sq ft of TDR at today’s rates in Mumbai could fetch about Rs 3,000.

HDIL had earlier acquired 53 acres of prime land at Kurla from an IFLS associate for Rs 1,900 crore. It proposes to construct 15 million sq ft there of which it would have six to seven million sq ft of commercial space for itself apart from the rehabilitation portion. A sq ft of commercial space in Kurla varies from Rs 15,000 – Rs 20,000, said Mr Hariprakash Pandey, DGM-Finance, HDIL.

Of the 276 acres of airport land, 180 acres will be for airport development and the rest for commercial development.

Mr Sarang Wadhawan, Managing Director, HDIL, said the Kurla project would serve to soften any opposition of the slum-dwellers as it was within a kilometre of their existing homes. Without furnishing details, he said HDIL has also tied up land to relocate the balance of 65,000 slum families in the vicinity of the airport and that the timeframe for the entire exercise was four-and-a-half years.

Referring to the first quarter performance, Mr Wadhawan said net profit was up 56.86 per cent at Rs 317.93 crore, against Rs 202.68 crore logged during the corresponding period the previous year. Turnover was up 28.60 per cent at Rs 570.08 crore (Rs 443.28 crore).

Last year, Larsen and Toubro was awarded a Rs 5,550-crore contract by MIAL to build a new integrated airport passenger terminal of the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The order is for modernisation and expansion of the existing airside facilities and primary infrastructure support facilities. A new five million sq ft terminal, to be set up in four years, will double the annual passenger handling capacity to 40 million.