Thousands queue up to bag free passes for Mhada housing lottery
Serpentine queues were seen outside the headquarters of the Maharashtra housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) in Bandra as early as 4.00 am on Friday.Two thousand free passes were being disbursed on a first-come-first-serve basis to Tuesday’s housing lottery to be held at Rangsharda Auditorium.
On Friday, a few thousand applicants, who are hoping their name will figure among the 3,863 lucky winners of Mhada’s subsidised housing scheme, stood clutching their receipts. They were divided into four orderly queues according to the category of flats they had bid for. Tuesday’s results will be announced over four sessions lasting two hours each, and passes of different colours have been issued for each lot.
A white tent had been erected in the compound where officials manned a series of counters. “We are allowing only those applicants who have come with a valid receipt. No agents or outsiders,” said Arvind Dhole, vice-chairman and chief officer, Mhada. “Over two months of preparation have gone into the exercise. The auditorium where the lottery will be held can only accommodate 600 people, but we have installed huge LCD screens in an open ground opposite where people can watch the lottery live.”
On Tuesday, within an hour of the results being declared in each category, the Mhada website will host the outcome. Interestingly, in their feverish anxiety to try and crack the code, several applicants have been posting their numbers online, hoping they can tweak their fate before the formal announcement is made. Dhole, however, warned citizens from falling prey to agents or websites that promised prior information, saying the lottery was a transparent and confidential process. “We will check to see that the applicant does not own a home in Mumbai, and has not won more than one flat in the lottery,” he said.
For a city where the cost of real estate is among the highest in the world, it is no wonder that over 2.5 lakh people applied for 3,863 subsidised flats. In fact, so overwhelming was the response that the agency advanced the deadline for the submission of forms. The high-income group apartments near Lokhandwala Complex and the low-, middle- and high-income group flats in Pratiksha Nagar got the maximum response.
Source : Times of India
