Maharashtra government reduces BDD Chawls redevelopment beneficiary agreements’ stamp duty

The government of Maharashtra has decided to reduce the stamp duty charges for the agreements to be entered between the Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority (MHADA) and beneficiaries of redevelopment of BDD chawls in central Mumbai.
As part of the redevelopment project, residents of these chawls will get 500 sq ft houses for their existing 160 sq ft tenement. The usual stamp duty for property registration in Mumbai is 5%.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced the decision through his twitter handle on Wednesday evening.

The state government has already started the much-awaited redevelopment of these chawls spread over 92 acres in central Mumbai's prime localities of Worli, Lower Parel and Dadar.

The revamp of the over-a-century-old Bombay Development Department (BDD) chawls will be one of the largest cluster redevelopment projects in Asia to be led by a state government.

The first part of the project will start with redevelopment of 121 chawls spread over nearly 60 acres in Worli with around 10,000 residential units. Out of 195 BDD chawls, Worli has the maximum number of chawls.

MHADA has been appointed as the nodal agency for the entire project, while a consortium of Tata Projects and Capacite Infraprojects will undertake the Worli phase of the project. The Tata Group entity holds 65% stake in this consortium and Capacite holds the rest.

The total cost of redevelopment at all three locations--Worli, Lower Parel and Dadar--is estimated to be Rs 17,000 crore.

Initially used as jails in the British era, these buildings were converted into housing units for the economically weaker sections of the society in the 1920s.

The current redevelopment plan envisages redevelopment of 121 such buildings at Worli, 42 at Dadar’s Naigaon locality, and 32 at Delisle Road locality of Lower Parel.