The residents of Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, say the 350-square feet free homes offered by the Adani Group are in the right direction and are looking forward to faster redevelopment of the slums within seven years.
“We welcome the offer made by the Adani Group but we would like faster construction and bigger 400-square feet houses,” said Ramakant Gupta, a Dharavi resident. “We have been waiting for our tenements since 2004 when the first development plan for Dharavi was approved by the Maharashtra government. Some of the residents have been waiting for decades to get into a concrete house,” he said.
“Our demand is for 500 square feet of free flats to the residents. The government is giving a lot of incentives to the project hence we think it would be feasible for the developer to offer larger houses to the residents,” said Rajendra Korde, convener of Dharavi Bachao Andolan. As per a 2007 survey, 58,000 residential and 12,000 commercial tenements are in Dharavi, and many of them are two and three storeys high. Hence, the population density is very high, and all should be accommodated, he added.
On Monday, Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt, a joint venture between the Adani Group and the Government of Maharashtra, announced that Dharavi’s eligible residential tenements will receive free flats with a minimum of 350 square feet carpet space – 17 per cent more than other slum redevelopment projects in Mumbai. The ineligible residents will be provided with free homes at another site.
The survey to identify the eligible and ineligible residents will begin by next week. Eligible residential tenements are those that were in existence before January 2000, an official said. The ineligible residents had taken houses on rent in the slums and lacked documentation.
“I think this is an attractive proposal from the Adani Group and they should get a good response from the occupants of Dharavi,” said Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman of Hiranandani Group.
The construction of nearby BDD (Bombay Development Department) chawls in Central Mumbai – which was the first to clear the red tape – is in full swing after Tata Projects, Larsen & Toubro, and Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. won the contracts two years ago. Once the construction at Dharavi starts, it will result in additional house stock coming to the metropolis, which is starved of quality housing, say real estate developers.
Experts say the new sea link connecting Central Mumbai and Navi Mumbai will give more impetus to Dharavi’s development. Vimal Nadar, Senior Director of Research at Colliers India, says that for the first time probably in decades, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is undergoing a transformative infrastructure upgrade on a scale previously unseen. “The upgrade has the potential to reimagine the real estate landscape of the city, somewhat liberating it from the growth limitations that come from the virtue of being a linear city,” he said.
“The Dharavi project, along with new urban infrastructure like Metro rail 3 (connecting Seepz, and the airport to South Mumbai) and the Coastal road, will transform the city,” said another real estate developer, asking not to be quoted. Key micro markets like Central Mumbai and
Navi Mumbai are poised to witness heightened commercial and residential activity led by improved connectivity and redevelopment projects such as Dharavi.
The Maharashtra government is planning to redevelop Dharavi as an integrated planned township, resettling its 1 million residents and reimagining the 2.8 square metre slum area into a cluster of high-rises with improved urban infrastructure. The project received approval for redevelopment in July last year, with the proposed timeline for completion within seven years for the first phase.
First Published: Jan 17 2024 | 12:18 AM IST
