TRANSFORMING DHARAVI

A REDEVELOPMENT PLAN OFFERS THE RESIDENTS OF ASIA’S LARGEST SLUM CLUSTER A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE. BUT WITH AN ADANI GROUP COMPANY INVOLVED, CAN CONTROVERSY BE FAR BEHIND?

- DHAVAL KULKARNI

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.