On Thursday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stated that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) are putting together an environmental cost and benefit analysis report regarding the redevelopment of 25,000 slums that are affected by CRZ-2 along Mumbai’s coastline and will send it to the central government in the next two months.
Shinde told the Legislative Assembly, “An environmental cost and benefit analysis report is being prepared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) regarding the redevelopment of slums that come under CRZ-2 along Mumbai’s coastline. This is a crucial analysis for the redevelopment of these slums which will be ready and sent to the central government in the next two months.”
After receiving the assurance from the chief minister, Mumbai BJP president and MLA Adv Ashish Shelar told the media that this clearly means that the fate of nearly 25,000 slums housing which is nearly 1.25 lakh people in Mumbai will be decided in the next two months.
According to the CRZ notification issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change on January 6, 2011, restrictions were placed on the rehabilitation of these slums.
The Union Environment Department later amended this notification on January 18, 2019, but the state government nevertheless wrote to the Centre because there was still uncertainty over the redevelopment of protected houses in this notification.
This made the process of redeveloping these slums even more challenging. The state administration was asked to provide a report on the environmental effects of allowing the reconstruction of these slums at the same time the Union Ministry of Environment and Climate Change convened a meeting on this subject in New Delhi, according to Shelar.