Maha Raj Bhavan staff to get sea-facing houses

It is not necessary to be a multi-millionaire in Mumbai to live in a sea-facing house. Junior-level employees, working at the Raj Bhavan will be living in sea-facing houses soon, a far cry from the 100 sq ft dwelling in a <g data-gr-id="16">chawl</g> they occupied earlier.

CM Devendra Fadnavis will hand over keys of 63 sea-facing quarters to the Governor’s staff on May 26. Fadnavis will unveil the newly constructed 14-storey building for the staff, at a function to be presided over by Governor C Vidyasagar Rao.

The CM will hand over the keys of the sea-facing flats to Group C and Group D employees on the occasion, an official spokesperson said. The high-rise building equipped with two lifts has 63 flats. 

While 43 one-BHK flats on the first nine floors, all measuring 360 sq ft, will be given to Group D employees, including gardeners, sweepers, kitchen and other support staff, 20 flats from 10th to 14th floors, all measuring 490 sq ft and having 2 or 1 BHKs, will be given to Group C employees, including clerical staff.

Till 2007, all Group D employees of the Raj Bhavan were living in <g data-gr-id="18">chawls</g> in 10 ft by 10 ft rooms having a common toilet and bathroom on each floor. In 2004, the then Governor late Mohammed Fazal asked the then CM Sushil Kumar Shinde to demolish the dilapidated <g data-gr-id="19">chawls</g> and create a tower to provide <g data-gr-id="20">decenthouses</g> to each of the employees.