Housing Projects

Redevelopment of Betwala Chawl: Housing Experiment with a community of cane workers, Foras Road:

This project was undertaken in collaboration with the Slum Rehabilitation Society for a community of care workers from Allahabad who settled in Mumbai before independence. CRITs involvement here has been significant in developing designs that provide for work conditions within the apartment type. CRIT uses the famous chawl typology of the city and carves out spaces within the building as storage and work spaces for the cane workers.

Redevelopment of Korba Mithaghar: Study and Proposal for a Slum community, Wadala:

This project has been in two parts: first a study commissioned by the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit for studying possibilities of alternative development models for slums and secondly, developing a housing project for the local community of Korba Mithaghar. CRIT has been collaborating with the Slum Rehabilitation Society and the Tenants Federation for both these projects. CRIT has been able to demonstrate to the government agencies against the proposals for increasing FSI for slum redevelopment schemes.

Redevelopment of Sahakar Nagar: An Ex-MHADA Colony, Tilak Nagar:

This project has been in two parts: first a study commissioned by the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit for studying possibilities of alternative development models for dilapidating State Housing and secondly, developing a housing project for the local community of Sahakar Nagar. CRIT has been able to demonstrate to the government that there is no need to increase the incentive FSI for undertaking redevelopment. CRIT has also been actively engaged with the local community to develop good living conditions for the families in these colonies. The designs developed by CRIT ensure that minimum land area has been given to commercial developments and minimum trees are cut in the master plan.

Download a presentation on Sahakar Nagar

Redevelopment of Milan Society: A community resisting Rehabilitation under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, Chembur:

Residents of the Milan Society Slum in Chembur approached CRIT to help them with Self Development. The Slum was affected by the Mumbai Urban Transport Project where a road was being cut through the slum. The Government was forcing the community into the rehabilitation flats. The community complained of the rehabilitation flats being worse than the slum with seven storied buildings stacked at 10 feet distances between them. The accommodation provided were inhabitable along with being completely negligent of any kind of community spaces, work patterns etc. CRIT proposed to rehabilitate the slum dwellers in the part of the site that was not being taken away for the road. CRIT developed designs for the same.

Redevelopment of Shastri Nagar Slum, Bombay Central:

The Tenants Federation, Mumbai approached CRIT to help the Slum Community of Shastri Nagar to make a self – development plan. The community was fighting a court case against a builder who had acquired approvals for the plans from the government after forging false signatures of the community members on the consent agreement.

Redevelopment of Jijamata Nagar, a MHADA slum resettlement colony, Mahalaxmi:

The Tenants Federation, Mumbai approached CRIT to help the Slum Community of Jijamata Nagar to make a self – development plan. As the slum site is on a prime piece of land, there have been several interests from builders for redevelopment of the site. There were cases of community members being threatened to make them agree to the builder’s plans.

Redevelopment of Sector 11, Bharat Nagar a MHADA slum resettlement colony, Bandra-Kurla Complex:

The residents of Sector 11 of Bharat Nagar approached CRIT for self-redevelopment. Due to very high land value, developers have been harassing the residents to sell of their houses offering exorbitant prices. The project is set in a highly contested context of developer-bureaucracy collusion,  high property value, legislative difficulties and a highly resistant community.

Redevelopment of Satya Vijay Society, Ramabai Nagar, a slum resettlement colony, Ghatkoper:

The Satya Vijay Society is a very small part of a the large Ramabai Nagar Slum. Due to its location (within a large slum), extremely small size and awkwardly shaped land that the slum occupies, no developer seemed interested in redeveloping the slum. The residents approached CRIT for redevelopment of the slum. Along with a designing housing on an awkwardly shaped plot, the challenge in this project was also find an interested investor. In this project, CRIT did not confine itself as a technical support agency, but got involved as a developer of the project.