More than five years later, a slum rehabilitation programme was launched in the Patil Estate slum area

More than five years later, the Pune Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has initiated a slum rehabilitation programme in Patil Estate, parts of which were destroyed in a fire that broke out in November 2018.

The Patil Estate slum is situated on six acres of land belonging to the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) Technological University. The land was allotted to the CoEP in the late 1980s for educational purposes but could not be utilised due to encroachments. Over time, four acres of the land were occupied by legal shacks and the remaining two acres by illegal shacks. From just 250 flats, the slum grew to 1,200 tenements. In November 2018, a fire broke out in which almost 100 of the 1,200 shacks were completely burnt down.

The slum rehabilitation scheme will be as per the Pune SRA regulations for both residential and non-residential slum dwellers with a minimum development density of 450 tenements per hectare to be considered for the rehabilitation and sale component. If the development density exceeds 450 tenements per hectare, the eligibility will be adjusted accordingly. In case of higher densities like 650 tenements per hectare or 850 tenements per hectare, the developer will be given additional incentives as per the SRA regulations. The rehabilitation (construction) has to be completed within 36 months from the date of commencement certificate. In case of any delay, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SRA will consider an extension as per the situation, if required.

Bhalchandra Birajdar, professor and head of the department of applied mechanics at CoEP, said, “Now that we have become a university, our policies have changed. Last week, we had written to the state government seeking permission to build on the CoEP land, which had been occupied by slums. The land was originally allotted to CoEP for educational purposes, but it was occupied. We have again approached the state government seeking permission to implement the SRA scheme on the land. Under this scheme, the slum dwellers will get 300-square-foot flats that they have been demanding and the state government has provided for this in the SRA policy.”

“The living conditions of the slum dwellers are miserable. Once the scheme is implemented, they will be provided with proper housing and CoEP will get the land back as per SRA rules. Once that is done, we will take a decision in the board meeting on how to utilise the land. As per SRA, we will try to maximise educational benefits from this land. There is a possibility of utilising it for staff quarters, hostel for postgraduate students or other educational activities,” Birajdar said.

Pratobha Ingale, additional collector of Pune SRA, said, “We have floated a tender and called developers to initiate the SRA scheme in Patil Estate slum. The tender will be opened soon. We will then calculate the rents and other construction works.”