Decades-long wait ends: 566 Worli BDD chawl tenants in Mumbai to get flats in highrises

Time of India

3 days ago

Mumbai: After a long wait, 556 families from Worli's BDD chawls will receive the keys to their new 500-sq ft flats Thursday. Two of the eight redevelopments — Wings D and E — are ready for occupation.
Fifteen of these families involved in the campaign for redevelopment and a couple of senior citizens will be handed their keys by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputy Eknath Shinde at a ceremony, while the rest will be handed theirs later in the day at the Mhada office.
Bajrang Kale, 53, states his address out loud. "Room No. 78, Building No. 31, 3rd floor, Worli BDD Chawl, GM Bhosle Marg. That's the old address," he says, perhaps aware that its days, even in memory, are numbered.
He then intones the new one with the same practiced ease, even though he hasn't yet seen the new flat. But he knows exactly where it is. "On the 36th floor of the D wing of the redeveloped building...facing the sea.
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The redevelopment of BDD chawls, where a majority of Marathi manoos have been residing for generations, has been a political issue for decades. The redevelopment was conceptualised when the BJP-undivided Shiv Sena govt was in office in 1995-99.
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It was Fadnavis, in his first tenure as CM, who kickstarted the process by appointing Mhada to carry out the redevelopment.
The redevelopment of BDD chawls at Worli, Naigaum in Dadar, and N M Joshi Marg is estimated to cost over Rs 17,000 crore. When completed, 15,593 residents would have been moved from 160 sq ft homes to 500 sq ft flats.
"My family and I are excited, not just about the new house, but about moving into a highrise building," says Kale, who works as a security guard and is the sole earning member of his family.
While he's thrilled with all the amenities the builder, Tata Housing, has provided —"the water harvesting system, the rooftop solar panels, the automatic light sensors in the corridors" — he wishes they'd installed invisible grilles too.
"The windows are large and open and dangerous without grilles, but they're an expense some of us can't immediately afford," Kale says. "New flat owners — it makes me happy to call myself a flat owner — have one month to move out of the transit colony after receiving their keys.
I have to arrange for Rs 20,000-3,0000 by then, to buy basic fixtures like fans and lights, and to cover installation charges."
The Nalawades, who have several earning members in the family and more disposable income, have budgeted for new furniture and kitchenware, including a dishwasher, a dining table, and king- and queen-sized beds. "It's something we couldn't manage to fit in the old house," says Siddhesh Nalawade, 38, who works at a translation company.
The Nalawades will receive two flats in lieu of the two BDD rooms they previously had, but the family of eight hasn't yet decided who will live where. "My brother and I will flip a coin for the flats, which are on the 20th and 31st floors" he laughs. "Our parents, Santosh and Anjali, have already decided they're moving to the 31st floor because several of our old neighbours have been assigned homes there."
The family, like most, has mixed feelings about the move.
While they look forward to the spaciousness and modern trappings of the flat, they look back at BDD as the home that anchored the family in Bombay. "My grandfather rented a room in BDD when he arrived from Malvan to work in Worli's Madhusudan Mill. Four generations of our family have lived together in BDD. Now, for the first time, we'll be living separately, even if in the same building," Nalawade says, ruefully.
Rupali Rane, 60, says she has made no plans for the new place, because her four daughters will take over the decor.
"They plan to send me to my sister's house while they set up the place," she grins, "They want new things for the new house." Rane, a volunteer with the Akhil BDD Chawl Bhadekaru Hakka Saurakshan Samiti, one of the tenant groups that led the campaign for redevelopment, says they were given a glimpse of 'tower life' at an orientation programme conducted by Tata Housing, the builders, and Mhada last month, where they were read out the new building rules.
She itemises them: "We shouldn't keep our slippers and shoes or other possessions in the corridors; we are not to play Holi or celebrate festivals in the corridors but can celebrate them below the building; we have to segregate our garbage; we shouldn't tap corridor lights for private electricity connections; and we shouldn't keep pets in the house. I think they're good rules."
Kiran Mane, 59, general secretary of the Akhil BDD Chawl Bhadekaru Hakka Saurakshan Samiti, acknowledges that loss of the BDD chawls signals the loss of a unique social and cultural legacy, but he cautions against sentimentality. "The chawls were a difficult place to live. They were dirty, crumbling, had water problems, and were sometimes dangerous. Riots have broken out here," he says, "The new flats are the culmination of a 25-year struggle for a better way of life.
That it has finally arrived is a dream come true."
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