Milan Nagar is one of the Alliance’s most important projects because it is for the rehabilitation of the Byculla pavement dwellers – the community with which SPARC began its work in 1984 in central Mumbai. The Alliance spent nearly a decade negotiating with the municipal authorities over the right of pavement dwellers to be resettled. During the same time, Byculla Mahila Milan organized savings groups and initiated a search for vacant land on which to build rehabilitation housing. It is also the project from which the alliance began to associate with Homeless International.

In 1996, the SRA policy was finally amended to include pavement dwellers within the resettlement entitlement lists. In 1998, State authorities allocated land in Mankhurd for the Byculla pavement dwellers to develop resettlement and rehabilitation housing. The land (4700 sq.mt) was part of a separate SRA project constructed by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), and a portion was granted for Milan Nagar, as the project also constituted rehabilitation housing.

Significant time and money went into designing the unique, split-level units, so that the “one room” R&R entitlement could become 2-3 separate spaces for better privacy and division of space. CLIFF provided the project loans. There is no sales component, since the space constraints of the site require that all units go toward the rehabilitation of pavement dwellers.

One of the four buildings has been constructed at Milan Nagar, and 83 families were resettled there in 2005. The construction of the three remaining buildings was delayed as households affected by the construction of Mankhurd Station were allotted temporary space on the Milan Nagar plot in 2003. In 2012, these households were finally allotted getting rehabilitation housing elsewhere so the remaining three buildings can now be constructed. As with other redevelopment projects, a joint venture with a developer will be used to complete the outstanding buildings.