A major policy initiative, the Shiv Sena-led MVA Government on Thursday announced that it would name the three major Bombay Development Department (BDD) chawls’ redevelopment projects in Mumbai after late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, NCP president Sharad Pawar and late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Replying to a debate in the State Assembly, Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad said that the BDD chawls redevelopment project involving several chawls at Worli would be named after late Bal Thackeray, the project at Naigaon would be named as the Sharad Pawar Nagar and the project at NM Joshi Marg would be christened as Rajiv Gandhi Nagar.
The decision to name three major BDD redevelopment projects has been taken keeping in view that the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are the three alliance partners in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government in the state.
“Similarly, we intend to name the Patrachawl after redevelopment as Sidharth Nagar. The work on a chawl redevelopment would begin at Kamathipura in the next three months,” Awhad said.
The Bombay Development Department, set up by the British in 1920, constructed BDD chawls to provide more housing areas/units to be used as tenements. Currently, at the BDD chawls, there are 207 ground-plus-three-storied buildings in an area spread over 93 acres -- each with identical 160-sq.feet ‘face-to-face' tenements with a 20-feet wide centre passage, common water supply, bathing and toilet areas. These chawls are located at Worli, N M Joshi Marg (Parel), and Naigaon.
The three major erstwhile BDD chawls complexes –comprising one of the chawls where Mahatma Gandhi spent a night among the sweepers’ community members in 1937 – are coming up in Mumbai as part of what is billed as Asia’s biggest redevelopment project worth Rs. 20,000 crore.
The project got underway in August. 2021.
Awhad said that the work on the complexes was progressing well and all the residents would get their new homes over the next five years in the upcoming 32 swanky towers with 500-sq.feet 2-BHK ultra-modern flats and other top amenities.
Being developed by Tatas, L&T and Shapoorji Pallonji, the well-planned new complexes will have 32 tall towers -- some of 40-storied ones and 22 storied ones with floors for parking, wide roads, at least 4 four schools, welfare centres, mini-hospitals, gardens, playgrounds, markets and shopping plazas.
The BDD chawls – where prominent personalities like have long been Republican Party of India (RPI) founder and ex-Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar Dr R. D. Bhandare, former cricketer Ramnath Parker and former Mumbai Mayor Nandu Satam have lived at different points of time in the past –have been popular shooting locales for scores of Hindi, Marathi films and tele-serials.