Mumbai's Kamathipura to soon get biggest cluster redevelopment

Kamathipura, one of the oldest neighbourhood in South Mumbai, is set to get a makeover soon. MHADA has floated tenders for construction and development agencies to redevelop it. Its century-old, cramped and dilapidated buildings will now be converted into skyscrapers. Spread over 34 acres, it will also be the largest cluster redevelopment scheme in the city.

Kamathipura’s redevelopment is expected to give a major boost to the real estate market after the redevelopment of Bhendi Bazaar, also known as Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT), which covers an area of 16.5 acres.

Divided into a grid of 15 lanes, Kamathipura has 943 cessed buildings, 349 cessed buildings, 14 religious places and two schools run by the BMC.

The state government approved the Kamathipura project on January 12, 2023, after which Mahimtura Consultants was appointed as the Project Management Consultant (PMC) through a tender process. Under this project, residents will get large houses with well-maintained infrastructure and amenities. The project will also have commercial buildings as a share of the builders' profits.

"The project will provide 44,000 square metres of land to MHADA, which will significantly increase the housing stock, while the developer will get 5,67,000 square metres of space to construct about 4,500 new units," a senior MHADA official explained.

The project will improve the living standards of about 8,000 tenants, of whom 6,625 are residential and 1,376 are non-residential. Apart from them, there are about 800 landowners who own most of the buildings in the area.

For every 539 sq ft plot, the owners will get a flat of 500 sq ft. If the plot size is between 51 sq m and 100 sq m, the owner will get two flats of 500 sq ft each. For plots of 100 sq m and 150 sq m, the owner will get three flats.

Kamathipura is one of the most densely populated areas in Mumbai. The area used to be in the news for being a red-light area. There are many small-scale industries here such as scrap markets, denim-dyeing industries, leather bag and shoe making units and even embroidery units.