Slum Rehabilitation Authority
Also called: SRA · Topic: Urban Local Government: Municipalities and Cities · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) is the Maharashtra state body that runs slum rehabilitation in Mumbai. It relies on a cross-subsidy model, which means profit from one part of a project pays for another part. A private developer builds free flats for eligible slum dwellers on the slum land. In return, the developer gets to sell extra flats on the same land. Because the builders pay, the state spends little of its own money. The weakness is that the scheme only works where land is costly enough for builders to make a profit.
Example
In Mumbai, some suburban projects were seen as not worth building because flats there sold for under ₹2,000 per sq ft. The city built only about 1.5 lakh houses in 14 years, against a target of 8 lakh. In one case, about 80,000 families on airport land were still not rehoused about ten years after a developer was hired in 2007. The CAG (India's top public auditor) found one reason: the SRA did not take over finished flats because the list of eligible residents was never finalised.
Don't confuse with
- In-Situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) under PMAY-U: this is part of a central scheme, not a city body. It also uses slum land to pay for rehousing on the same site, and the Centre adds help of up to ₹1 lakh per house.
- DUSIB (Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board): the Delhi government's main body for slums. Delhi does not use a builder-funded model like Mumbai's SRA.