Mumbai: Calling it a “miracle” that lakhs of residents continue to live in structurally unsafe buildings, a committee appointed by Bombay high court has raised alarm over the condition of the city’s ageing cessed structures, highlighting delays in redevelopment and acute shortage of rehabilitation housing.The panel’s report estimates that nearly four lakh tenants are currently residing in 12,552 cessed buildings across Mumbai, many of them dilapidated and awaiting redevelopment. It noted that prolonged legal disputes, stalled proposals and lack of adequate transit accommodation have forced residents to continue living in unsafe conditions.The risks were underscored during inspections when committee members themselves narrowly escaped injury after a cement block weighing around 50 kg fell from a staircase moments after they had crossed the spot inside a dangerous building. Several structures visited by the panel were found to be on the verge of collapse, the report said.A key concern flagged is the severe shortage of transit accommodation. While Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has around 20,400 transit tenements, only about 500 are currently available for rehabilitation.The special panel comprising justice J P Devadhar, former judge of Bombay high court, and Vilas Dongre, former principal district judge, was constituted by the high court in response to mounting concerns over the condition of Mumbai’s cessed buildings and delays in their redevelopment. The panel was tasked with carrying out on-ground inspections, interacting with tenants, landlords and officials, and submitting a comprehensive assessment of structural risks, bottlenecks in redevelopment and availability of transit accommodation.The report also records complaints of redevelopment projects stuck for years due to disputes among co-landlords, title issues and prolonged litigation. In several cases, tenants alleged landlords neither carried out repairs nor collected rent for over a decade, leaving buildings abandoned in unsafe conditions. Concerns were also raised over the quality of repairs by MHADA’s repair board. According to the panel, MHADA has issued 935 notices under Section 79-A of the MHADA Act to expedite revamp of dangerous cessed buildings, but many proposals remain stalled due to procedural hurdles and court cases.The report is expected to play a significant role in ongoing proceedings before the high court on redevelopment of cessed buildings.Activist Jeetendra Ghadge described the findings as an “eye-opener” and called for urgent legal reforms. ” I congratulate the committee for its hard work, detailed inspections and for hearing hundreds of stakeholders. Maharashtra govt must now urgently amend the Maharashtra Rent Control Act and the MHADA Act to streamline redevelopment and permanently end the British-era pagdi system,” said Jeetendra Ghadge.Urban planner and architect Nitin Killawala said transparency and clarity in policies, empowerment of societies for self-redevelopment, and FSI pricing are keys to expedite the process.Another expert, requesting anonymity, said, “Cessed buildings, which have a lifespan of around 60 years, continue in occupied condition, some of them even touching 100 years, posing a serious threat to residents. There are over 12,000 such buildings. Many of these are technically unsafe but not in danger list yet. In fact, several buildings that were not declared ‘dangerous’ have collapsed. However, deals are struck with the help of officials and buildings are selectively declared dangerous to pave way for their redevelopment, often favouring a builder-politician nexus.“
