The Slum Rehabilitation Authority has been trying to appoint a builder for one of the slum redevelopment projects located in Vakola. Despite floating tenders twice, there has been no success. So, for the third time, the SRA has invited bids from developers. Earlier they had a clause stating any developer wanting to redevelop will have to present a bank guarantee of Rs 200 crore. Seeing the lack of response, the figure has been scaled down to Rs 20 crore now. The first tender was floated in February 2018. The SRA then re-invited bids from developers in July, and finally the third call for re-inviting bids was floated in September, giving developers time to bid till October 4. The slum project named Om Namo Sujalam Sufalam Co-op Housing Society Ltd measures 21882.15 sq m and belongs to the Society of Slum Dwellers. The project comprises around 800 slum dwellers. Apart from being allotted homes, the slum dwellers will also be given a cash benefit. The SRA tender reads, "The bidders/developers shall indicate the benefit they will give to the members of society in cash in lieu of ownership of land vested with society by way of financial offer in the bid." Ashok Redkar, the treasurer of the society located very close to the Western Express Highway, said, "The previous developer had promised us Rs 17 lakh for every room apart from the houses we will get under the redevelopment scheme. Only developers giving us the amount mentioned will be entertained." According to Redkar, the project dates back to 1985 when they started the process and in the mid 90s, two buildings were built by the society themselves. They roped in a developer later, but work on the project stopped due to some issues and got embroiled in legal tussle eventually. A senior SRA official working on the project, said, "We had floated a tender earlier this year, but didn't receive response as expected. So we re-invited bids; however, there was no response again, therefore we floated the tender for the third time. I do not know why the response is meek. We are following Supreme Court orders that directed us to float tenders to rope in developers for slum rehabilitation projects." Real estate expert Adv Sanjay Chaturvedi believes: "The project is huge, the real estate market condition isn't very good and favourable. The Rs 200 crore bank guarantee was a huge roadblock, lowering it might help. Also, one has to see if the project located so close to the airport will be affected by the funnel zone or not. All these factors could have contributed to the lack of response." The tender also specifies that the bidder/developer will get free sale area permissible to them under regulation 33(10) of DCR of Greater Mumbai, 1991. STILL IN PIPELINE The project dates back to 1985 when they started the process and in the mid 90s, two buildings were built by the society themselves. They roped in a developer later, but work on the project stopped due to some issues and got embroiled in legal tussle eventually.

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