MUMBAI: The state government needs to quickly intervene and control the galloping price of transfer of development rights (TDR) in Mumbai. The TDR stock is held by a few builders and traders and there are allegations of cartelisation.
There is currently widespread panic among suburban property redevelopers as slum TDR rates have doubled in the last two months-from Rs 2,500 a sq ft early to a dizzying Rs 4,000. Surprisingly, the TDR sold by the government is half the rate. But for builders redeveloping properties in the suburbs, they still have to depend on a handful of traders to buy their stock.
In Mumbai’s construction industry, slum TDR certificates are the equivalent of the stocks of blue-chip companies. They are generated when the developer\owner surrenders his land to the government and agrees to rehouse slum dwellers or project-affected persons free of cost. In turn, he is issued a TDR certificate that gives him additional construction rights in the suburbs, but only to the north of the plot he has surrendered.
For instance, if a slum is redeveloped in a non-prime area like Trombay, the builder can utiliseTDR in upmarket Bandra (west), which falls north of Trombay on the map.
Builders have reaped a bounty ever since the concept of slum TDR was introduced by the state government in 1997. They have gone on a construction spree, especially in the congested western suburbs between Bandra and Andheri.
