Welcome to Slum Rehabilitation Authority

The Government of Maharashtra has launched a comprehensive slum rehabilitation scheme by

introducing an innovative concept of using land as a resource and allowing incentive floor space
index (FSI) in the form of tenements for sale in the open market, for cross-subsidization of the
slum rehabilitation tenements which are to be provided free to the slum-dwellers.

Jurisdiction of SRA

As per the provision 3A(1) of Chapter I-A of Maharashtra Slum Areas ( Improvement, Clearance
and Redevelopment) Act, 1971 State Government of Maharashtra vide Housing and Special
assistance Department notification no. SRP/1095/CR37/Housing Cell, dated 16 December 1995
and through necessary statuary amendments has established Slum Rehabilitation Authority
(SRA), Mumbai to serve as Planning Authority for all Slum areas in the jurisdiction of Municipal
Corporation of Greater Mumbai. Subsequently by Govt. of Maharashtra Hosting Department
Notification no. SRP 1001/CR2017/14/SRI-1 dated 11 September 2014, area of the Thane
Municipal Corporation has been added in the jurisdiction of SRA

SRA's Responsibilities

It is the endeavor of SRA to implement the slum rehabilitation schemes by providing a single
window clearance for all types of approvals that are required for the project namely formation of
co-operative societies, certification of eligibility of slum-dwellers, taking punitive action on non-
participating slum-dwellers obstructing the scheme, survey and measurement on slum lands
grant of building permissions, leasing of rehabilitation plots and free-sale plots and updating of
property cards (PR cards).

The powers, duties and functions of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority are :
To survey and review existing position regarding Slum areas in greater Mumbai.

To formulate schemes for rehabilitation of slum areas.

To get the slum rehabilitation scheme implemented.

To do all such other acts and things as may be necessary for achieving the objective of
rehabilitation of slums.

SRA as a Planning Authority

Slum Rehabilitation Authority has been given a status of corporate entity with effect from 3rd
January 1997. It is an independent autonomous body. By amendment carried out to the
Maharashtra Regional & Town Planning (MR & TP) A ct 1966. SRA has been declared as a
planning authority, to function as a local authority for the area under its jurisdiction. The Chief
Executive Officer, SRA has been delegated the powers exercisable under various sections of the
MR & TP Act, 1966 by the State Government by its notifications UDD No. TPV 4396 / 492 /CR
-105 / UD-11, dated 13th September 1996. By an amendment to the MR & TP Act 1966. SRA has
been empowered to prepare and submit proposals for modification to the Development Plan of
Greater Mumbai.

A Working Model for Slum Rehabilitation

How innovative regulation is enabling private capital to deliver social impact and realize
attractive returns in Mumbai.

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By Jay Srinivasan & Shailesh Viswanathan Sep. 9, 2014

Mumbai_India_Photo

Mumbai, India.

Mumbai is commonly referred to as India’s New York City—the country’s commercial, financial,
and entertainment capital. The city accommodates more than 20 million residents; it boasts a
diverse and perennially growing population, attracting people from bankers to migrant workers.
The city that today comprises 2 percent of the nation’s population, contributes more than 25
percent of its industrial output, and pays 33 percent of its taxes.

A land-starved island city with an expensive property market (unlike the rest of the country),
Mumbai is among the densest cities on earth—five times denser than London and three times
denser than New York City.

Amid this density is the underbelly of Mumbai’s rapid growth: its immense slums. Mumbai has
the dubious distinction of being both the economic and the slum capital of India, housing the
sixth highest number of billionaires and paradoxically, a tenth of India’s slums.

Urban migration, compounded by lack of affordable housing, has resulted in more and more
people squatting on mostly government land over decades. Slums pockmark the entire
metropolis, housing more than 9 million residents and covering half its land mass.

Early Years

mumbai_skyscraper

A skyscraper project in the Lower Parel area of Central Mumbai overlooking slums in the
foreground. Slums occupy half of Mumbai’s land mass and are estimated to house nine million
residents.
After numerous unsuccessful attempts to address this problem—demolition, forced re-
settlements, and other measures—successive local governments commenced various slum
improvement works, subsequently legitimizing many of these dwellings. These local
governments issued soft leases of land to certain slums via a World-Bank-funded, urban
development project that also included providing some civic amenities and loans to fund home
improvements to slums. But due to poor government implementation, and the ever-increasing
housing shortage and population influx, slum density and living conditions have continued to
worsen.

A Policy Breakthrough

A breakthrough came about when the state government in 1995 enacted bold market-oriented
regulation to mandate rehabilitation using private capital. If developers could commercially
monetize a portion of a slum’s expensive tract of land, they could use a portion of the returns to
subsidize and fund rehabilitation for the remaining area.

The creation of a powerful regulator called the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), chaired by
the state’s chief minister, played an important role in the monitoring and evolution of the
program.

Early Years and Missteps

Critics point to the unsteady teething years following the regulation’s launch. An evolution of any
new revolutionary regulation was bound to involve missteps, and the SRA scheme had its fair
share. Shoddy execution from developers; flipping of projects, where some developers simply
sat on, then sold their approval rights to other developers for a profit; heavy-handedness in
dealing with non-consenting minority dwellers; and project delays from cash-strapped
developers all caused significant mistrust and diffidence.

In hindsight, although the regulatory framework looked at successful models in South-East Asia
and World Bank norms, the economics and execution capabilities had not matured. Market
prices in the 2000s simply didn’t support this sort of ambitious subsidization, and developers
hadn’t acquired the significant people skills they needed to work effectively with slum dwellers.
But after years of regulatory refinement and guideline tweaking to resolve on-the-ground
bottlenecks, a confluence of factors has emerged over the past seven years to significantly drive
the effectiveness and success of SRA, including:

Higher real estate prices, which enable the economics to support full subsidization

Prudent and standardized regulations and incentives

The emergence of large and capable developers specializing in redevelopment

mumbai_advertisement

An advertisement from the regulator’s office highlights the government’s impetus and support
of the scheme.

Recent results are impressive, with more than 150,000 families already rehabilitated, and a
further 300,000 in the pipleine.

How Slum Rehabilitation Works

The process entails slum members first organizing themselves into co-ops. They then vote to
award a property developer the mandate to re-house them onsite in “SRA regulated” high-rise
buildings approximately half the site they currently occupy—all provided pro bono. The
rehabilitation also includes compensation for temporary relocation of about three years, during
building construction.

Once completed, each family receives legal title and moves into its stipulated 269-square-foot
apartment, including a bathroom with tap water and a kitchenette.

rehabilitation_buildings_malad_mumbai

New rehabilitation buildings under construction on former slum land in Malad, North Mumbai.
Each unit contains a 269-square-foot apartment with an attached bathroom and kitchenette.

In return for providing this pro-bono rehabilitation, regulations award the developer an incentive
subsidy to build and sell commercially an equivalent area on the other half of the land. Both
components are demarcated and have independent access. At today’s high property prices, the
proceeds from this commercial sale (generally residential condos) more than offset the costs of
pro bono slum rehabilitation, also generating a tidy investment return for the developer and
investors.

The uniqueness of this approach is hard to underestimate—its democratic nature is the bedrock
of its success:

Unlike the Beijing, China, model, where slum dwellers can be evicted by government fiat and re-
settled elsewhere, Mumbai actually re-settles its slum dwellers onsite.

No authority can mandate a resettlement. Only slum dwellers voting in their own cooperative
housing societies are empowered to make that decision. A minimum 70 percent vote is
mandatory and binding for all dwellers.

Years of trial and feedback have refined regulations. For example, the practise of developers
flipping their rights is banned and, to prevent residents from flipping, slum dwellers cannot sell
or rent their property for at least 10 years. Women of the household are now named first on the
title deed and listed as joint-owners so that they have equal rights to the new property. Also, all
SRA buildings must comply with a fixed set of specs, streamlining expectations and earlier
processes, where individual co-ops negotiated independently with developers.

Apart from the social benefits, the program’s win-win augurs strongly for its sustainability:

Slum dwellers attain formal ownership rights to property and experience enhanced net worth
achieved at zero cost. The far superior standard of living and property title also brings with it
social and financial inclusion benefits.

Government achieves the rehabilitation of slums and encroachment. It also achieves its social
objective of low-cost housing at no cost to taxpayers.

Society at large gains from improved infrastructure and, more importantly, increased housing
stock in supply-constrained Mumbai.

Investors gain access to projects in prime city locations. Moreover, slum rehab projects offer
higher returns due to lower capital requirement. The lower land acquisition cost essentially
reduces the capital outlay by two-thirds.

The sustainability of the program enthuses city planners and investors alike. They view slum
rehabilitation less as an onerous cost and more as a multi-billion dollar social impact-investment
opportunity. But its most important contribution may be the lessons it will impart during its
evolution. Should this trend continue, Mumbai may well become an effective working model for
emerging cities that are dealing with the dynamics of rapid growth and urban migration.