Mumbai, June 4 -- Starting Friday, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) will begin handing over possession of 537 redeveloped Bombay Development Department (BDD) flats to families at Naigaon, taking the total number of rehabilitation units handed over to affected residents to 2,784. With the larger BDD chawl redevelopment project comprising 15,593 flats across Naigaon, Worli and Parel, the latest round of handover will take the proportion of redeveloped flats allocated to affected residents to 18% of the overall target. "We recently received occupancy certificates for tower numbers 1, 2 and 3 (in Naigaon), which have more than 500 flats. We will begin distribution of the flats from Friday," a senior Mhada official told Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity. The allotment process would be conducted at Mhada's project office at Naigaon, Dadar. "Residents have been informed that the distribution process will be conducted in the order of tower numbers 2, 1 and 3," the official noted. The Naigaon BDD Chawl Redevelopment Project, now named the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar BDD Complex, comprises 20 rehabilitation towers of 23 storeys each spread across two complexes. The first round of handover of 864 flats in the complex, spread across five towers, commenced on March 16. Once complete, the complex will accommodate 3,344 residential and non-residential tenants living in 42 existing chawls. Residents of these chawls, who have lived in 160 square feet single-room tenements for generations, will get two-bedroom flats with 500 sqft carpet area. They have been given the option of availing transit accommodation or advance rental assistance of Rs.25,000 per month for 11 months. The larger BDD Chawl redevelopment project spans approximately 86 acres across Worli, NM Joshi Marg in Parel, and Naigaon, covering around 207 chawls and 15,593 residents. The Worli project will accommodate 9,689 residents in 34 rehabilitation towers, while the NM Joshi Marg project will accommodate 2,560 residential and non-residential occupants in 14 rehabilitation buildings. The entire project's overall deadline is 2029. At Worli, 556 rehabilitation flats were handed over to affected residents on August 15, 2025 by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, who died in a plane crash on January 28 this year. Allotment letters for another 827 flats at Worli commenced on May 21 this year, and the process is still underway, officials said....