Findings from our reserach trip to India

1. SFURTI -Addressing Challenges in India’s
Slum Redevelopment
Redevelopment through sustainable financing, innovative construction methods
and sustainable decentralized amenities
Team Members:
Michelle Hindman
Olivia Lu Hill
Sean Murphy
Sneha Rao
Yash Shah
Zeqi Zhu
Faculty Advisor:
Vikramaditya Khanna
Partner Organization
Summary of findings from Research Trip to India

2. Our Key Research Questions Answered
 Slow pace of implementation in projects delivered primarily by government, such as BSUP, where only 33% of approved projects were constructed (
Prof. Mahadevia, Prof Sejal Patel)
 Lack of engineers at the ground level with ULB’s to monitor the projects, 1 engineer shared by 4 ULB’s ( CMO, Betma)
 2 years of construction time leading to doubling of costs, leading to the cost borne by end beneficiary getting doubled and hence unaffordable (Prof.
Sejal Patel, Prof. Mahadevia , CMO, Betma)
 FSI and Land incentives are incentives that have worked in Mumbai, similar incentives could be found for private developers in other parts of the
country, such as profits from rental units in these redeveloped houses etc. (Prof Sejal Patel)
 The strength of market mechanisms is that real estate players are able to bring in innovate construction practices such as tunnel form, pre cast
technology being implemented by Omkar developers in SRA projects which has enabled them to construct G+23 in a record time of a year (IPAL)
Government vs
Private Delivery of
Projects?
In-Situ Upgradation
vs Redevelopment?
Modular vs Non-
Modular Housing?
Addressing Challenges in India’s Slum Redevelopment
 Aspirational lower middle class isn’t satisfied by piecemeal upgradation, amenities upgraded require a lot of maintenance (IPAL)
 Due to limited funds, upgradation either involves cheap solutions like community toilets which have low take up rates or tenure regularization, which
furthers informality, Community Toilet usage national average of 6% because of lack of maintenance (PAS)
 Non-in Situ redevelopments in BSUP saw low take up rates , 70% unoccupied flats in BLR and 90% in HYD compared to 100% take-up rate in SRS
projects (SRA, Prof. Sejal Patel)
 Lack of incentives for government or private developers to upgrade, in redevelopment projects private developers have an incentive to have better
construction quality (K Heemani, SRA)
 In in-situ BSUP housing project in Pune, the metrics in livelihood, education and health saw a decrease, which shows the importance of timely and
good quality of construction and not just of the location ( Prof. Sejal Patel)
 In India, even in formal housing sector people move into houses which are cookie-cutter, in the sense that the same design for many houses is being
sold in the same apartment complex, and if we start having participatory approaches in design, the project will never take off (Omkar Developers)
 269 sq foot in Mumbai is quite a lot, the design of housing is decent, for free housing these are excellent. We have been living here as a family of 5, and
instead of space what we really value are the amenities of enclosed toilets and gated community residence (Resident in Mumbai SRA flats)
 Giving away 269 sq ft of housing irrespective of area occupied in the slums is fair and reduces complications when obtaining consent (SRA, Kanga and
Company)
 In SRA projects there is an allowance for resi-commercial housing as well, so the livelihoods in re-developed areas aren’t lost (Kanga and Company)

3. NEW RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 While STP’s haven’t taken off in India, other sustainable alternatives highlighted in SBA are Bio-digester, which are very new, which other technological
solutions will involve minimal maintenance and have low cost? (PAS)
 Who looks after the maintenance of the projects? Who would be the auditing agency from government in absence of engineers in ULB’s? How do you
ensure that the quality of construction itself is good? (Kanga and company, Prof. Mamidi and Prof. Berhndhart)
 Are pre-cast technologies earthquake proof? (IFC)
 While installing solar panels for high rises, G+23 in Mumbai is feasible, how do you incorporate shading effects from buildings in lower storied housing?
(Prof Mamidi and Prof. Berhndhart)
 Pre-Cast and Tunnel form are two innovative technologies that we have seen being implemented, are there other innovations which can result in time
and cost savings for the private sector developers? (IPAL)
Technology
deployment?
Financing? Types
of PPP?
Other Questions?
Addressing Challenges in India’s Slum Redevelopment
 In road sector, NHAI has shifted towards EPC contract, where the government funds the construction and the road developer only has to develop the
project in a stipulated period of time; In the BOT mode, the developer invests in the project and recoups it either through tolling rights; In housing sector
we can explore which model works better? (IFC)
 While, in past projects end-user is typically paid 8-10% of project cost, and government paid the rest; SRA model involves no payment from end user or
from the government, in other cities what incentives can be provided to private developers? (CMO, Betma)
 In BSUP housing, the utility subsidies from these households were withdrawn after allocation of housing, in SRA these subsidies were continued, what
are the various financing options for the residents so they don’t default on their utility bills? (Prof. Sejal Patel)
 Instances of subletting were found, which is natural considering every 1 in 3rd resident in urban areas is a migrant, and migration is dynamic and future
migrants weren’t considered in such redevelopment projects? ( Prof Sejal Patel)
 While in Mumbai, high-rises are the norms, in other cities where norm is not more than G+3 housing, from the resident perspective how high can we go
so that take-up rates of such projects remain high? (PAS)
 Usage of toilets is a huge issue in low income communities in Orissa, are the situations similar in slums in other cities or not? (Prof Mamidi and Prof.
Berhndhart)
 In Ahmedabad, land pooling techniques have resulted in big chunk of land available for LIG and EWS housing, which could be provided at subsidized
rates for developers, what are some of the other mechanisms which could help earmark land to be given as incentives for private developers?

4. Financing through funds from multilateral agencies
/ government funding
Construction projects taking years to
build and resettle into remote locations
TRADITIONAL SLUM
REDEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Upgrading through community toilets only due to
lack of payment potential from end-users
Sustainable financing by working
with private developers for slum redevelopment
Alternative (Industrial Design Construction)
Methods
Self-sustaining micro-grid Waste Water and
Electricity Infrastructure
PROPOSED SLUM REDEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Addressing Challenges in India’s Slum Redevelopment