ROMF prepares blue print for police housing

Mumbai, July 18 (UNI) If a blue print prepared by the Remaking of Mumbai Federation (ROMF) gets approval from the State's political corridors, the 40,914 strong police force in the city will have good houses.

Under the plan, even the police stations and police posts, several of which are at present in a dilapidated state, are proposed to be given a face-lift.

''RoMF is in talks with the state government. A presentation of this blue print was recently made to the Mumbai Police Commissioner D N Jadhav and other senior police officials and another presentation, with some modifications, will be made to him shortly,'' a source close to the development told UNI today.

According to convener of the ROMF, Lalit Gandhi, ''It is a fact, while we are trying to provide cheap housing for slum dwellers, our officers of the law are left to fend for themselves, on their low wages. Through the blueprint of the ROMF, we hope to help every constable in Mumbai have an adequate roof over his head.'' The plans drawn up by ROMF entails the grant of extra Floor Space Index (FSI) for developers to resolve the problems of dilapidated police housing structures and old police colonies. With the extra FSI, ROMF envisages the construction of police housing quarters of at least one bedroom, much more than the paltry 180 square feet housing for constables currently.

The current strength of Mumbai Police is 40914, of whom 36151 are in the rank of assistant sub inspectors and below.

Of these, 3329 are working as ASIs, 8146 as hawaldars, 6010 as police naiks and 18666 as constables. Also, only 40 per cent of the police force are provided housing, and those on the lower income rungs get quarters measuring only 180 square feet.

The rehabilitation of Mumbai's police force is part of the ROMF's greater plans of sectoral and planned redevelopment of the city. A sector-by-sector development of the city is on the cards, which would focus on 'vertical development', leaving scope for adequate open spaces for public use.

With around 20,000 dilapidated buildings identified in Mumbai by the ROMF and the state government, the plan looks at increasing the permissible FSI, and channelising a larger part of the proceeds than currently allowed to landlords as incentive for development, and also to the state government for upgrading infrastructure and more mass-housing. ROMF says, up to Rs 18,000-50,000 crore can be set aside for much-required infrastructure work in Mumbai.

The Remaking of Mumbai Federation (ROMF) was formed to tackle the issue of dilapidated buildings, tenants' safety and to help raise the standard of living conditions. ROMF is also at an advanced level of talks with the Government of Maharashtra to put into action its urban renewal plan for the city of Mumbai.

UNI