CIDCO cuts Navi Mumbai home prices by 10%, lottery for 17,000 flats in two months

Making a statement in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, Shinde, who also holds the urban development and housing portfolios, said the price cut would apply across all CIDCO housing categories, a move aimed at making government-built homes more affordable for the common citizen.

Shinde informed the House that CIDCO has constructed around 17,000 homes across key Navi Mumbai nodes, including Kharghar, Vashi, Kharkopar, Taloja, Ulwe, Kalamboli, Kamothe and Panvel. The lottery process for allotment of these units is expected to be completed within the next two months. Ahead of the allotment, the government decided to lower prices to ease the financial burden on aspiring homeowners, he said.

The deputy chief minister said the decision was in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Housing for All” and was intended to ensure access to affordable, good-quality, government-owned housing. While homes constructed by agencies such as Mhada and CIDCO are typically priced below prevailing market rates, CIDCO units have historically been costlier than Mhada homes, putting them out of reach for many buyers. Taking this into account, the state government has taken what Shinde described as a “major and historic” decision.

Shinde said the price reduction formed part of a broader set of housing reforms undertaken by the Mahayuti government. These include steps to make Mumbai ‘pagdi-free’, an amnesty scheme for hundreds and thousands of homeowners who have been denied occupation certificates, and special initiatives to accelerate housing redevelopment. Collectively, he said, these measures could prove to be game changers for Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, where affordable housing has remained a long-standing challenge.

On the penultimate day of the winter session of the state legislature, Shinde said the move to make Mumbai pagdi-free would help fulfil the dream of home ownership for over 2.5 lakh families. Around 1,900 buildings constructed before 1960 and awaiting redevelopment are expected to benefit. Redevelopment in many cases had been stalled due to nearly 28,000 court cases arising from rent control disputes.

He said tenants would be entitled to the same floor space index (FSI) in redeveloped buildings. With the prior approval of the Bombay High Court, the pending cases would be transferred to fast-track courts and are expected to be resolved within a couple of months, thereby removing legal bottlenecks to redevelopment.

Shinde also announced a proposal to introduce ‘green’ transfer of development rights (TDR) to protect endangered mangroves and facilitate the creation of mangrove parks in Mumbai. In another decision, he said a housing stock or housing bank would be created to benefit mill workers affected by the closure of 58 textile mills in the city.