Mumbai, Apr 29 (IANS): In a significant announcement, Maharashtra Housing Minister Dr. Jitendra Awhad on Thursday said that the state government would redevelop the sprawling fishermen's colony at Cuffe Parade - from where the 10 heavily armed Pakistani terrorists sneaked into the city and wreaked havoc during the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike.

The area, known as Machchimar Nagar is situated on a prime 21 acres in the posh Cuffe Parade, on the Arabian Sea shores, and the Minister's announcement came at the Real Estate Forum-2022 here.

"Out of these 21 acres, 15 acres are open spaces. The state government plans to involve the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to handle the processes and then hand it over to some developer for further redevelopment," said Dr. Awhad.

The 10 terrorists had quietly landed in rubber dingies at the porous fishers' colony late in the evening of November 26, 2008, and entered the city virtually unnoticed that cool night.

Then, they fanned out to various key locations like the Chabad House, Hotel Trident, Hotel Taj Mahal, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Chowpatty, etc and indulged in bloody mayhem for the next 60 hours.

Awhad also said that there has been a huge jump in the premium collected by the Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority (MHADA) in the past ten years.

Compared with a collection of Rs 1,902 crore from 2011-2021, in just one year, 2021-2022, MHADA netted around Rs 1,873 crore as premiums, he said.

Emphasising that the development and beautification of Mumbai is linked with the realty industry, Awhad said that with no open spaces available, all development is possible only through redevelopment on the existing spaces, which benefits all stakeholders.

The Machchimar Colony will be the third major eyesore redevelopment project taken up under the Maha Vikas Aghadi government after the BDD Chawls and the Patrawala Compound projects in the past one year.