MUMBAI : The City Home Is Neither Luxury Nor Affordable

- Ar. Prem Nath

• Ar. Prem Nath was one of the dignitaries during the Inaugural Ceremony & the Panel Discussion at The Economic Times 13^th Edition of ACE TECH 2011;

• ACETECH was inaugurated on 3^rd November 2011, by Hon. Chief Minister of Maharashtra Sh. Prithviraj Chavan, Hon Minister Sh. Chagan Bhujbal in presence of Ms. Kathy Abernathy – President IAID, USA, and others;

• Among the Panel were Industries’ Top Honchos like Mr. Anuj Purie of JLLM, Mr. Gautam Ahuja of Ahuja Construction, Mr. Dharmesh Jain of Nirmal Lifestyle, Mr. Aashish Raheja of Raheja Universal, Mr. Ali Lokhandwala of Lokhandwala Builders and colleagues from the fraternity;

• Prem Nath debated on the subject of “Mumbai City a Luxury or Affordable Living” and stressed on the fact that Mumbai neither provides for Luxury Living, nor does it allow Affordable Housing;

• Elaborating on the above, Prem Nath highlighted the issue of slum, water shortage, congestion, traffic jams, etc. which comes as part and parcel of the high-end (read expensive) “Luxury” apartments; in contract to this the state government has failed to even create the affordable housing clusters in & around this city; so neither does a Rich man enjoy his luxury, and nor does a mediocre have a decent shelter, in this city of Mumbai;

• Architect Prem Nath during further conversation with Mr. Anuj Purie mentioned that the State Government to Enable the development of both, luxury & affordable living in a balanced way – thereby providing for High-end development with good infrastructure an about 25% low sized apartments Free Of FSI, which could be priced at a lower cost of Rs. 1,500/- per sft.; A builder shall be able to develop say 4 towers of high/mid end residential along with a separate structure within the complex with low cost studio apartments;

• This, Ar. Prem Nath highlighted, shall not only achieve a good balance and de-stress the city, but shall also enable the service class to live close to their work – he said, “. . why do our Domestic Help, our Drivers, etc. need to travel 50km to come to work – why can’t they live close to our homes and be easily accessible . .”

• Giving example of West Bengal Housing Boards successful development in Rajarhat and New Town at Kolkata, Prem Nath proved that, it only needs a little effort from the State Government and active participation from the Industry to be able to achieve this Balance;