Glossary

BMC: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation 

Municipal authority that manages public transport, electricity, sanitation and health (hospitals, garbage disposal, sewerage, water supply), public records and public spaces in Greater Mumbai. The BMC is responsible for drawing up and implementing the city’s development plan, enforcing building norms and development control regulations, and is a major landowner. Although municipal corporations do not have a direct mandate to work on slum improvement or affordable housing, they are involved in a variety of ways (as an implementing agent of state or central government schemes like JNNURM; as a landowner; in having to deal with relocation of informal settlements in inhabitable areas or as a result of infrastructure projects; and through declaring slums, conducting censuses, issuing photopasses and providing amenities). Established in 1888, the BMC was the first municipal corporation in India. The corporation is headed by a Municipal Commissioner, an IAS officer. 

BSES: Baseline Socio-Economic Survey 

HUDCO: Housing and Urban Development Corporation 

A public-sector company owned by the government of India. Although HUDCO must loan 70 percent of its funds to economically weaker sections and low-income groups, money rarely reaches the poor after funds are channeled through state government agencies or local bodies, which are supposed to disburse funds and insure repayment. An important obstacle to slum dwellers’ capacity to access loans is that they do not own the land they occupy and thus cannot offer their property as security. After long negotiations, HUDCO has agreed to lend to groups of the urban poor, provided that 15 to 25 percent be deposited with an NGO and that slum dwellers not be expected to move in the near future; however, this program has not taken off substantially. 

JNNURM: Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission 

An ambitious initiative of India’s central government to finance urban renewal and development projects in 63 selected cities. Scheduled to unfold over seven years beginning in 2005-06, the plan also comprises a Sub-Mission for Basic Services to the Urban Poor, which earmarks funding for integrated slum development through projects related to housing and infrastructure.JNNURM is implemented Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), who execute specified governance reforms before receiving funding. 

MHADA: Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority 

Created in 1977, this state-level agency was charged with improving slums on government and private land and has been the main agency supplying public housing in the state. MHADA is the successor to the Housing Board; both entities developed as the state took up responsibility for supplying new housing stock when providing rented accommodation became unprofitable immediately after Independence. MHADA has provided only a small fraction of housing required to meet the needs of the state’s growing urban population.  

MMRDA: Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority 

A government body that plans and develops civic infrastructure in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which consists of 4355 sq. km., 468 sq. km. of which comprise Greater Mumbai. This is an apex body that coordinates the development activities of a number of municipal corporations and councils. MMRDA oversees MUTP and MUIP and previously coordinated the Mumbai Urban Development Project (MUDP).  

MUIP: Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project 

Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007, MUIP is a project to improve roads and traffic management in Mumbai overseen by MMRDA. SPARC has been invited to manage resettlement of most of the 35,000 households affected by the plan, most of whom are pavement dwellers. 

Mumbai Rent Control Act  

Introduced in 1947, this Act sought to freeze rents at 1940 levels and protect tenants from eviction. This legislation negatively impacted property tax collection and private investment in rental housing. The policy was revised in 1986 and 1993, but changes only applied to new properties.  

MUTP: Mumbai Urban Transport Project 

A Rs. 45 million government project to upgrade Mumbai’s public transportation system, overseen by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). Slated for completion in 2008, the project will displace an estimated 19,128 poor households that live in the path of planned development. Thanks to World Bank funding stipulations, the project includes a resettlement and rehabilitation (R & R) policy that offers affected families a free 225 sq ft. tenement or, where shifting has to be done urgently, transit accommodation of 120 sq. ft. with basic amenities; this is the first time that a central government agency has agreed to an R & R policy in an urban area. The NGO SPARC is responsible for resettling 20,000 households living along railway tracks. Of these, over 11,000 households have been resettled to either permanent (5000) or transit accommodation (6000). 

SRA: Slum Rehabilitation Authority 

A government agency set up in 1995 under the Slum Rehabilitation Act to serve as the main planning authority for slum upgradation. This agency administers construction under the “SRA scheme,” which entitles slum and pavement dweller families that can prove residence in Mumbai prior to January 1, 1995, to a free 225 sq. ft. housing unit. The scheme also offers extra building rights that can be sold in the open market to private developers as an incentive for developing slums. Slum landowners, co-operative societies of slum dwellers, NGOs or any real estate developer may serve as a developer, providing 70 percent of eligible slum dwellers sanction the project. Although the scheme was welcomed by many as an effective means of subsidizing housing for the urban poor, the policy has been criticized for encouraging piecemeal development, neglecting employment and infrastructure needs of the poor, and promoting high-rise buildings, which are more expensive to construct and maintain and may be ill-suited to the lifestyles of the urban poor. SRA norms created the initial framework for benefit allocation under the Dharavi Redevelopment Project.  

TDR: Transferable Development Rights  

Permission for extra building space − a right that can be sold on the open market − that the government offers to private developers as an incentive for constructing affordable housing.  

ULB: Urban Local Body 

Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) provide basic infrastructure and services in cities and towns. In large urban areas, the ULB is a municipal corporation, whose jurisdiction is further divided into wards, each of which is represented through one or more elected corporators and may have an administrative body known as a ward committee. In smaller urban areas, the ULB is a municipal council, municipal board, or municipal committee. 

Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act 

Enacted by the central government in 1976, this law aimed to achieve a more equitable distribution of land by putting a ceiling of 500 square meters on vacant urban land that could be held by a single private owner. Excess land was supposed to be returned to the government for purposes of housing the poor. In practice, landowners by-passed the act through loopholes, and restrictions actually reduced the supply of formal land. The state government of Maharashtra acquired only 40 hectares of land under the law in 26 years. Thousands of acres of land in Mumbai alone were locked up in legal limbo. The law was repealed at the center in 1999 and in Maharashtra – one of the last states to retain the law – in November 2007. Repeal has unlocked 5200 hectares of land in the state. While some assert that real estate prices will fall when locked-up land is brought into the market, others argue that the shortage of commercial and residential space in Mumbai will keep prices beyond the reach of the poor.