Inaugurating the project to redevelop the famed BDD Chawls at Jamboree Maidan in Worli area of central Mumbai, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray appealed to the residents not to sell their new homes and to preserve the chawl’s culture and history.
The Bhoomipujan, earlier scheduled for July 27, had to be postponed to Sunday due to floods in the state. This was the second Bhoomipujan at the site after former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had performed a launch ceremony in 2017 but the project never took off.
‘‘BDD has a long history of chawls. Don't break the cord of your culture. You have lived here all your life. This house is your own so don't be tempted to sell your new homes and don't allow Marathi palanquins to be crushed” said Thackeray .
There are 195 BDD Chawl buildings with 80 tenements each build between 1920-1925.After redevelopment residents will be given 500 sq. ft flats.
The CM said that in last few months the government has built about five lakh houses in rural areas through the rural development department and started allotting to mill workers.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar too appealed to the residents not to sell their new homes as the chawls have history and culture behind them. He said that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Prabodhankar Thackeray, Sahityaratna Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe, Acharya Atre and many other great personalities and revolutionaries lived in these buildings. People of many castes and religions have been living here together for years. Unity of Maharashtra is seen here. This history must be preserved. “Don't sell your hard-earned reward and don't reduce the percentage of Marathis in this area,” said Pawar as he added that residents must be given other facilities along with homes.
Housing minister Dr Jitendra Awhad said that work would be completed in the next 36 months. Houses will be provided to about 3,000 policemen including retired policemen and those who have resided here since 2010. The slums at Kamathipura and Colaba will also be redeveloped. Awhad also added that there were a number of difficulties encountered while redeveloping the BDD plots and there were many challenges in the agreement and the question of the displaced. But now a way out has been found.
Aditya Thackeray, tourism minister and guardian minister of Mumbai Suburbs, said new buildings will be constructed at the same place after rehabilitation. One of them is chawls, which should be conserved and converted into a museum so that future generations can know their history.
As many as 9689 rehabilitated flats will be constructed in this project and other facilities will be provided.
Also present on the occasion were revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat , minority development minister Nawab Malik, textiles minister and Mumbai City guardian minister Aslam Sheikh, minister of state for housing, Satej Bunty D Patil Patil , Kishori Pednekar, Mayor of Mumbai, Shiv Sena leader Arvind Sawant, MP Rahul Shewale, Mumbai building repair and reconstruction board, chairman Vinod Ghosalkar, Mumbai slum improvement board chairman Vijay Nahta, former minister Sachin Ahir, chief secretary Sitaram Kunte , BMC commissioner Iqbal Chahal, housing principal secretary Milind Mhaiskar, MHADA vice president and CEO Anil Diggikar , Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagarale, and MHADA Mumbai Board Chief Officer Dr Yogesh Mhase.
