Reimagining Asia's largest slum | Transforming Dharavi

For two decades now, the million or so residents of Dharavi, one of the largest slum clusters in the world, have dreamt of a life of greater dignity—of owning a house, not having to wait in long queues for water and using public toilets, escaping the gutter-lined streets and the poverty and disease. It was back in February 2004 that the first action plan for the redevelopment of Dharavi—one whose blue tarpaulined hutments have defined the gritty Mumbai skyline in many a film—as an integrated planned township was drawn up by the state government.In 18 years, at least three attempts (in 2007, 2016 and 2018) to invite bids to redevelop Dharavi fell through. So, when in November last year an Adani Group company stepped in and won the bid that covers 645 acres of prime land in central Mumbai, it was no small feat. And yet, barely months later, uncertainty looms again, with concerns being raised about how the Adani Group company won the contract, the financial capability of the group to execute the project as it tries to ride out the Hindenburg controversy and, whether it is seeing the project as a resettlement plan or a real estate goldmine.Dharavi residents have grown sceptical of the resettlement plan, which is expected to take almost two decades to complete. Not only that, the opposition Congress has accused the government of favouritism, stating the project’s bidding conditions were changed to exclude a previous successful bidder and help the Adani Group win the tender at a much lower price.In 2019, the UAE-based Seclink Technologies Corp., which offered Rs 7,200 crore against Adani Properties’ Rs 4,539 crore, had emerged as the highest bidder. But the state government decided to include a 45-acre plot belonging to the railways for the rehabilitation of the slum-dwellers. Since the scope of the project had changed, fresh bids were invited and tenders floated again in October 2022. While Seclink has now moved the Bombay High Court (the case is being heard), Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has questioned whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi forced the Maharashtra government to change the tender conditions to deliberately exclude the original winner and “once again help his favourite business group”. Adani Properties had bagged the project in the second tender with a Rs 5,069 crore bid last year, Rs 2,131 crore less than Seclink’s original winning bid.However, despite the state cabinet deciding to award the project to Adani Properties, the state is yet to issue a government resolution (GR) formalising it. In the budget session in March this year, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the legislative assembly that the letter of intent (LoI) would be issued after the urban development department grants a pending approval. Valsa Nair Singh, additional chief secretary (housing), denies that there are any delays. “The final GR will be issued soon after the line departments issue GRs for the concessions approved by the cabinet,” she says. After the GR, the state government will issue an LoI, followed by the inking of the MoU and the formation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV), with the developer and government holding an 80 per cent and 20 per cent stake, respectively.Not everyone buys these assurances, though. “We are not against development, but in the wake of the recent controversy, we doubt whether Adani will be able to execute the project,” says former MLA and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Baburao Mane. Mane is part of the Dharavi Bachao Andolan (DBA), an umbrella front of opposition parties and voluntary groups. The DBA wants Adani Properties out or, at the very least, safeguards like stiff penalty clauses to prevent time overruns.A real estate jackpotA stone’s throw from the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), an upscale business district in the city, Dharavi is a land of opportunities in a space-starved city. Multiple railheads like the Mahim, Bandra, GTB Nagar, Kings Circle and Matunga Road stations, the under-construction metro railway project, the arterial eastern and western expressways, the international airport are all easy to access from here. Not just that, Dharavi itself, with its thriving leather processing units and tanneries, scrap recycling units and home-run businesses, is now one of the biggest informal industrial hubs in India.The living conditions, however, can boast of no such distinction. Around 400,000 people live cheek by jowl per square kilometre here, compared to a population density of around 27,000 people per sq. km for the rest of Mumbai. A public toilet seat in the neighbourhood is shared, on average, by around 250 people daily. These conditions contributed, in no small measure, to the slum emerging as an infection hotspot during the Covid-19 pandemic. Graphic by Tanmoy Chakraborty The urban renewal project is a much-needed step in that sense. Under it, the residents of Dharavi will get flats with a minimum carpet area of 405 sq. ft. The area will also be transformed into one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in Mumbai. “While slum-dwellers who came before 2000 will get free housing, residents who came between 2000 and 2011 will get it at a concessional rate.... We’ll have a rental housing scheme on a hire-and-purchase basis for those who came after,” says S.V.R. Srinivas, CEO of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).Efforts will be made to construct this rental housing in Dharavi itself, but in case the land falls short, they will be shifted to areas in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) within a radius of 10 km. Authorised commercial units will get an equivalent space. While the rehabilitation component is expected to be completed in seven years, the resale component, that is properties to be sold in the open market, will be built in 18 years. Further, Fadnavis has also said that industries in Dharavi will be rehabilitated and provided with common facility centres (CFCs), a five-year tax holiday and GST refunds. Some residents in Dharavi have flats that measure over 750 sq. ft, and Fadnavis has assured them of larger houses.It’s not an easy undertaking, though. The largest Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) project in Mumbai so far, at Chandivali, covered around 10,000 hutments. Compare that to the 70,000 structures (at last count in 2007-08) in Dharavi, and the sheer scale of the challenge becomes clear. During the winter session of the state legislature in December 2022, Fadnavis told the assembly that Dharavi had 46,191 residential units eligible for rehabilitation and 12,974 commercial units—59,165 units in total. However, officials say the figures are from a 2007-’08 survey, and that the number may be around 100,000 now. The population, too, is estimated at about a million, around a 10th of Mumbai’s 12.5 million population. Apart from this, there are 4,818 slum-dwellers on railway land, also eligible for rehabilitation. Railway quarters are to be redeveloped and the people accommodated in 84,649 sq. m of built-up area.Srinivas says once the SPV is formed, a survey will be conducted to determine the number of eligible slum-dwellers and, the land to be utilised as the rehabilitation component and that for open-market sale will be determined. “This is an extremely challenging project. In fact, ‘challenge’ is an understatement. It is humongous. No project of this scale has been conceptualised or executed in the world,” he says. The construction cost is expected to cross Rs 20,000 crore. Work is expected to begin by the end of the year. The project is based on the principle of using land as a resource. This means that Adani Properties will spend around Rs 20,000 crore for the construction and recover its costs from the open market sale component.Realty experts, too, point to the myriad opportunities on the horizon. Pankaj Kapoor, MD of Liases Foras Real Estate Rating & Research Pvt. Ltd, describes it as “a promising project with a complex set-up because it is not (just) a housing project, it is like a city within a city”, only one with massive economic activity. Industry stakeholders say tentative prices of residential and office spaces in Dharavi may be in the range of Rs 25,000 to 40,000 per sq. ft after the redevelopment. This means, initially, resale spaces may be available at discounted rates, lower than the rates of Rs 50,000-80,000 per sq. ft in BKC, but prices may rise later.Residents in a bindDharavi’s residents, though, are not happy with the opacity around the plans. A key concern is that the redevelopment will be treated more as a real-estate development project instead of a resettlement one. Opposition leader Mane says around 5,000 small and big industrial units in the area provide direct or indirect employment to Dharavi residents, and they fear being pushed out to make way for an extended BKC. Dhansukh Parmar, a resident of the 12.5-acre Dharavi kumbharwada, which got its name from the Gujarati potters who settled there in the early 20th century, notes that much of the project planning was top-down and did not take into account the views of the locals. The kumbharwada has around 2,000 families and around 110 bhattis (kilns) to make earthen products, which are exported to countries like Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. Parmar wonders how their business needs will be incorporated into the redevelopment plans. Chetan Chauhan from the kumbharwada says many of them have houses as large as 2,000-3,000 sq. ft, and are not willing to settle for smaller tenements.Owners of local industrial units, like Raju Khade, who has a manufacturing facility for leather and faux leather goods, say they want an industrial hub within Dharavi. “Today, many residential structures double up as manufacturing units. But when buildings are built in their place, it is obvious these families will not be able to work like in the past,” he says.Naturally, Dharavi needs an empathetic urban planning approach for the many complexities involved. Ex-DRP chief and former chairman of the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) Gautam Chatterjee says, “Ultimately, we have to understand that Dharavi is not a simple slum but an industrial township.âæ My fear is, in terms of looks, the eyesore may go away, and we will have a swanky city. But if you say this is a redevelopment project for the purpose of rehabilitation, then you must be very carefulâæthere must be the least amount of displacement,” he says. Chatterjee says the survey to identify eligible households, their numbers and occupations will be crucial in this.Both Adani Properties and the state government are trying to address these concerns. In response to a detailed questionnaire, an Adani Properties spokesperson said: “Our balance sheet is very strong and we are confident about arranging the financing for the project. The fears and concerns raised by vested parties about us meeting the project’s financial obligations are unwarrantedâæ. The residents of Dharavi are central to our planning and execution. There will be no change in our implementation schedule after receiving the LoA (letter of award).”Srinivas, too, talks about taking the residents into confidence. “We will have a masterplan that addresses most of these issues after the MoU is signed. It will earmark the open spaces and community structures,” he says. “The project already has penalty clauses. If there are delays, the market itself imposes penalty clauses due to a delay in releasing the resale componentâæand a growth in the cost of construction.”As of now, the idea of redevelopment evokes both hope and trepidation among the residents of Dharavi. The simplest of things, such as owning a house with an attached toilet, have never seemed more real. “Eve-teasing and harassment are common at the public toilets. Once we get flats, we will have toilets in our house,” says Korde enthusiastically. But, as Dharavi Business Forum ex-president Anjum Shaikh points out, “Just developing the land will have no meaning if the people are forced to leave. Then it will only be populated by a few crorepatis.” And if that happens, Dharavi will cease to be Dharavi, the centuries-old melting pot of dreams and aspirations that has come to stand for working-class Mumbai.‘Redevelopment must uplift the community’Samya Korde, 23 | Student of law and urban planning and political activistThe women and the elderly have to bear the brunt when it comes to issues such as sanitation, water and electricity. Public toilets and community water taps are our life. The toilets are dirty and many shut down after 11.30 pm. And if the toilets on the main roads are open, women face harassment from goons and drug addicts. Lack of proper sanitisation facilities has also led to the spread of diseases like dengue and malaria. Planned redevelopment will provide relief, but it must be done through sustainable methods and uplift the community. Just converting horizontal structures into vertical ones is not redevelopment. The local communities will benefit if socioeconomic factors are taken into consideration. ‘'Our vanvaas has dragged on endlessly’Akhtar Rangrej, 40 | Garments business owner and social workerOur family of 12 stays in an 8x8 ft tenement. I was born in Dharavi and it is our dream that the children have good houses to live in. Dharavi has produced doctors, engineers and professionals despite every adversity. We can do even better if we get the facilities. Our houses lack ventilation and natural light and we live so cheek by jowl we can smell what the neighbours are cooking. But there is a question on our minds. Does the state have the will to ensure Dharavi is developed? Lord Ram’s vanvaas lasted for only 14 years, ours has been dragging on forever.Published By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: May 12, 2023--- ENDS ---

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Reimagining Asia's largest slum | Transforming Dharavi

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