MUMBAI: Dharavi in Mumbai is synonymous with slum, filth, humongous population density, open drains and little sanitation but also a lot of pluck and enterprise. It is not just residential. The slum settling also comprises an informal industrial township spread over 240.35 hectares in the heart of Mumbai overlooking the Bandra Kurla Complex, which is among the toniest of business centres in India. The national reality of two Indias—of the poor sandwiched between the rich—couldn’t have had a better setting. Small but significant cottage and small-scale industries like garment manufacturing, plastic recycling, leather, pottery and food products function out of this dingy shanty cluster. It has an estimated 15,000 single-room factories and 5,000 businesses.
Besides, it is a rich source of cheap labour. Most of Mumbai’s drivers, car washers, maids and housing-keeping staff for various up-market business houses in posh South Mumbai call Dharavi their home. Imagine 8-10 people living in a cramped 100 sq ft shanty, that is Dharavi for you. At 3,54,167 people per sq km, its population density is among the highest in the world. Over the years, a significant percentage of settlers in Dharavi from all over the country brought with them special skill sets and became self-employed, like the tanners from Tamil Nadu, artisans from UP and potters from Gujarat. This busy hive of activity is about to be disrupted, as they are to be relocated to an adjacent parcel of land till Dharavi is redeveloped for both housing and industrial purposes.
Covid fight model
When coronavirus struck and India went into lockdown, people in slums like Dharavi had nowhere to hide. Mandatory social distancing couldn’t apply there because of the thick population cluster. Lax hygiene—an estimated 80% of its residents use community toilets—further complicated matters. Soon enough, the slum became an infection hotspot. But aggressive tracking, testing, treating and isolation brought the virus rate down in a couple of years. It was celebrated globally as the Dharavi model for combating Covid. The slum’s population density, too, helped expedite herd immunity.
Adani contract
Back to the present, after umpteen false starts over two decades, decks have finally been cleared for the redevelopment of Dharavi. On July 13, a government resolution announced the award of the slum redevelopment project to the Adani Group. The announcement came eight months after Adani Properties emerged as the highest bidder with a Rs 5,069 crore offer for the project valued at Rs 23,000 crore in a global tender that was opened in November 2022. The second highest bid was for Rs 2,025 crore by the DLF group. The third bidder, Shree Nadam, was disqualified in the technical round itself.
Since Dharavi lacks horizontal space, any plan to accommodate all the residents in pucca houses has to go vertical. Over a million people living in about 2.5 sq km there have to be given alternative housing. When it is complete, say seven years from now, it could count as one of the world’s largest urban resettlement and regeneration projects. After redevelopment, each registered slum dweller family is expected to get a free house in a high rise measuring around 450 sq ft. Equally challenging is the task of ensuring that livelihoods are not uprooted. Adani Properties says it is committed to dovetail diverse commercial establishments of various sizes and scales into the redevelopment plan as well. The rehabilitation of ineligible residents, too, has to be addressed. The ambitious project includes providing amenities like gas, water, electricity, sanitation and drainage to all houses. That apart, there would be recreational facilities and open spaces. Residents have been promised access to a good hospital and school.
2019 contract
Move the calendar back by a few years and you find a 2019 tender that preceded the one in 2022. In the 2019 tender, the Adani Group lost the race with a bid of Rs 4,529 crore against Dubai-based Seclink Group’s Rs 7,200 crore. However, that tender was scrapped as 45 acres of adjacent railway land was not part of the papers though it was to be acquired for relocating Dharaviites. When Uddhav Thackeray was chief minister, his government had paid Rs 800 crore to acquire the railway land. But it later ran out of patience and cancelled the tender citing undue delay in the transfer of railway land. After the Sena-BJP government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde came to power, the railways released the 45 acres in Dadar. It is in this parcel of land that Dharavi’s residents will be relocated to - instead of shifting them to transit camps in various parts of the city — till the redevelopment project is complete.
How it all began
The ball was set rolling with the formation of the Maharashtra Slum Rehabilitation Authority in 1995. Two years later, in 1997, architect Mukesh Mehta, chairman of MM Project Consultants Private Ltd, proposed developing Dharavi as an integrated township. Accordingly, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project was first announced by late Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in 2003-04. His government adopted a resolution to approve an action plan for the redevelopment on February 4, 2004. The plan included using land as a resource to cross-subsidise the cost of development through a sale component by breaking it up into sectors and appointing different developers for them. His government also notified the whole of Dharavi as undeveloped and appointed a Special Planning Authority for planning and development.
Deshmukh said the idea was to transform the lives of Dharavi residents by shifting them from the slums to high rises. He intended to convert large parts of the Dharavi landscape into a world-class business centre with high-rise residential colonies and commercial complexes. Under his watch as CM, the state formed the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority and floated global tenders in 2007. As many as 101 companies took part in the process. However, over the years, the project languished and finally in 2011, the tender was cancelled citing a global slowdown. In the interregnum, in 2009, a state-appointed experts’ committee rubbished the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, made adverse remarks against Mukesh Mehta and called the scheme a form of sophisticated land grab. Deshmukh served two terms as CM from 1999 to 2008. His dreams for Dharavi redevelopment stayed just that way. Cut to the 2019 tender, and Seclink had a better bid than Adani but it was scrapped. A revised 2022 tender followed and Adani Group won the contract.
Judicial challenge
Seclink has since approached the Bombay High Court challenging the July 13 government resolution awarding the project to the Adani Group. Seclink claimed it would have been the successful bidder in 2019 had the government not cancelled it on technical grounds. It argued it was ready to pay the railway land cost and other expenses as well, but the state government brushed it aside.
Some concerns
Despite the assurance that all the industries will be accommodated, the slum’s dwellers claim they are not clear about its granular details. For instance, if a potter were to get a house on the 10th floor, he would hardly be able to ply his trade as his products are fragile.Pankaj Kapoor, MD and chairman of real estate research firm Liases Foras said through the project, Adani Properties will get around 1 lakh sq ft, out of which 30,000 sq ft will go for rehabilitation while 70,000 sq ft would be used for saleable residential and commercial properties in cross-subsidisation. “Dharavi is a thriving informal economy. It will be destroyed if skyscrapers come up,” he warned. His other concern was about the 70 lakh sq ft saleable area, 50% of which he reckons would be developed as residential properties. “35 lakh sq ft of residential area means 3,500 two-BHK units that could enter the market at a ticket price of about Rs 30,000 per sq ft. Each unit would cost at least Rs 3 crore. There is no developer in Mumbai at present who can sell such a large number of units,” Kapoor claimed.