Housing body cites problems in acquiring Completion Certificate, OC and Fire Brigade Clearance, among the reasons for delay
If you are planning to try your luck in the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s (MHADA) home lottery for 2012, better be prepared to wait for three years to get possession of your home, just in case you win. According to senior MHADA officials, the 3,500 homes which are being constructed keeping the 2012 lottery in mind, will be handed over to winning applicants only after 2015.
“The alert has come from our engineering department, which has sighted several problems due to which the possession of the homes will only be possible after 18 months or even beyond that,” revealed a senior executive engineer from MHADA.
Directing at issues like acquiring Completion Certificate (CC), Occupational Certificate (OC) and fire brigade clearance, the official admitted that MHADA will require few months to get them post completion of the residential colonies. “Take a look at three of our projects, which are still awaiting OCs and fire clearances from BMC. The civic body and the state housing body have been at war over these issues since years. And the same is expected to happen in this case,” reported the official.
When the ADC checked on the facts with MHADA it, was confirmed that two colony projects – Ghatkopar and Mankhurd – were still awaiting clearance certificates from the BMC. Speaking to the ADC, D. K. Jagdale, Joint Chief Officer, MHADA said, “There have been few problems with the clearance certificates, but the issue is being sorted out. We have procured the OC for Shailendra Nagar colony at Dahisar and will be initiating the possession procedure very soon. Apart from that, the issue with Mankhurd is also being sorted out.”
Politics over lottery homes
Apart from delayed OCs and BMC clearances, politics is also playing its part in delaying things. Differences allegedly existed between NCP’s Sachin Ahir (Minister of state for Housing) and the ex-head of the Mumbai board of MHADA, Amarjit Singh Manhas, who was allegedly pro-Congress. “The issue was regarding whether MHADA, a housing agency, is liable to sell under-construction houses,” revealed a senior MHADA official. Had MHADA worked in a scenario wherein all lotteries would have been conducted post construction of homes, then the housing and area development body would have had to sacrifice most of their proposed plans. Reportedly, the ex-head of Mumbai board asserted that MHADA can work on the lines of under-construction lotteries as the state allows individual buyers to book under-construction flats from private developers.
Senior MHADA officials alleged that they are being sandwiched between the two warring parties.