MUMBAI, Aug. 8 -- The redevelopment of at least 28 Mhada housing societies in Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali West, involving more than 650 families, has remained stalled for the past few years due to a decades-old FSI issue linked to land acquisition and planning decisions dating back to the 1980s and 1990s. Mhada, which developed Mahavir Nagar during these decades, had leased individual plots to housing societies after developing the township. However, an unresolved discrepancy over pro-rata FSI has emerged as a major hurdle for redevelopment projects, leaving several societies caught in a deadlock despite having signed Development Agreements with builders. Pro-rata FSI is typically derived from public amenities such as roads and open spaces and proportionately redistributed among plots within Mhada layouts during redevelopment. In the case of Mahavir Nagar, a curious twist has resulted in the society being deprived of a portion of FSI since Mhada never got possession of roads marked in the Development Plan (DP). In a communication dated March 31 to the Mumbai suburban collector, Mhada stated that the Mahavir Nagar layout had an FSI of 3. According to the authority, the colony spans 58.644 acres, of which roads account for 15.354 acres. Around 6.29 acres of the road area is encroached upon. Mhada also noted that the landowner, J S Perera, had transferred possession of the land reserved under Development Plan (DP) roads to the government but not fully. The authority further explained that out of 104.94 acres of vacant land owned by J S Perera and others, which were declared surplus under the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) Act, 57 acres and 18 gunthas were earmarked for acquisition by Mhada. However, only 42.94 acres were handed over on paper in October 1980, while the remaining 14.06 acres were never transferred. Moreover, of the 42.94 acres handed over on paper, Mhada received physical possession of only 23.69 acres. "As this land was acquired under the ULC Act, Mhada did not actually receive the land meant for roads in the Development Plan, only the rights for access over and facilities in them. 'Possession Given' on various maps shows that the 42.94 acres were handed over to Mhada excluding DP road areas," the housing authority said in its letter. "As the road was never handed over to Mhada, the pro-rata FSI is unavailable to us," said Bimal Maheshwari, chairman of Mahavir Nagar's Parijat Society, whose 112 members have signed a redevelopment agreement with Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate. "Developers initially made offers based on the layout plans, which reflected an FSI of 3. However, after signing the development agreement and scrutinising the land records, they discovered that only 2 FSI was actually available." Maheshwari alleged that the missing 1 FSI had been sold by the land owner decades ago to a developer whose family continues to be in the business for the last over four decades, adversely affecting redevelopment prospects for existing housing societies. The issue has also stalled the redevelopment of Mahadev Society, a federation of 10 housing societies with around 300 members. The confederation signed a redevelopment agreement with Paradigm Realty more than a year ago but the project has made little progress. The impasse has effectively halted redevelopment unless developers revise their proposals or the state government intervenes through a policy decision or grants a special concession for the area. Residents say at least 14 other housing societies, involving around 250 families, are facing similar uncertainty. Their redevelopment projects, undertaken by developers including Veena Developers, Vaibhavlaxmi Developers and Je & Vee Infrastructure, remain active on paper but have made no progress. HT could not reach Vaibhavlaxmi Developers for comment. Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, Paradigm Realty, Je & Vee Infrastructure and Veena Developers did not respond to queries sent....