MITRA - MHADA

MITRA - Mhada Initiative for Transparent and Responsive Action

Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), the most popular government organization, shares a glorious History in the Housing sector. The basic objective of the Housing Authority was to uplift the standard of living of the last section of the society. In the last seven decades, MHADA has provided affordable housing to nearly 7.50 lakh families across the state, of which 2.5 lakh alone are in Mumbai. In the last seventy years, MHADA has seen many aspects of housing activities and also ups and down in housing sector but MHADA was always adaptive to these changes.

In pre-independence era, Industrialization gave rise to urbanization, and resultantly led to migration. Many people in the rural areas shifted to urban areas in search of employment opportunities , better living standard and better education in the city. Also after World war II, the partition of India and formation of Pakistan led to the largest human mass migration in history. Many Hindu refugees settled in Mumbai, where the Indian government gave them asylum. Resultantly acute shortage of housing was felt in the then Mumbai province of India, which extended its borders till Karachi. To tackle the problem of housing, the then Housing Minister Guljarilal Nanda passed the Housing bill and thus came into existence the Maharashtra Housing Board, which was constituted under the Bombay Housing Board Act, in 1948.

Maharashtra Housing Board was formerly called "Bombay Housing Board", soon after institution became popular among masses in the state as it was the only respite for the people to avail budget home in size and price. The Housing Board had its jurisdiction over the entire state of Maharashtra except Vidarbha Region. Various affordable housing projects for different sections of the society were implemented by the housing Board. Some of the landmark projects included Ambedkar Nagar in Worli was the first housing project that was constructed in 1948 while the housing project of Tagore Nagar, Vikhroli that was built in 1962-63, became one of the biggest housing project in Asia.