The Maharashtra government has invited fresh tenders for the ambitious Dharavi Redevelopment Project. The decision was taken at a state cabinet meeting on Wednesday, September 21. The previous tenders had been scrapped in October 2020 on the advice of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS), which itself had been advised by the state’s advocate general. At the time, the government had acquired 46 acres of land at a cost of Rs 800 crore from the Indian Railways.
The highest bidder for the previous tender was Seclink Technologies Corporation, a UAE-based firm. When the tenders were cancelled, Seclink Technologies Corporation moved the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva against the decision to scrap the tenders.
Then and now
The project had first been envisioned nearly 16 years ago but scarcely any work has been undertaken on the ground. Dharavi is Asia’s largest slum, spread over 600 acres, and houses nearly a million inhabitants in its packed dwellings. The redevelopment is expected to change the face of India’s financial capital while also empowering the Dharavi residents.
The new plan is to transform the area into a single residential cluster, which will be undertaken under a single global tender. The single tender system was brought forth in 2018, scrapping earlier plans of dividing Dharavi into five sectors. Only one of these sectors would be redeveloped by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) while the other four would be taken up by private entities with separate tenders.
How the residents are placed
Till now, only 350 residents have been able to move to new residences. All of these are located in the Sector 5 Area, which was redeveloped by MHADA. Another major issue that has emerged with the project is the fact that not all residents of Dharavi are eligible for new houses.
Of the two lakh dwellings in the slum, only 69,160 are eligible for new houses, reported Hindustan Times. A 2009 preliminary survey by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) conducted in Sector 4 of the area found that 63 percent of residents were ineligible for new houses.
The new project will have devastating implications for the thousands of small manufacturers that have cropped up in the area. The majority of the Dharavi residents work within the confines of slum.
Why now
In light of the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) polls, the issue of the redevelopment project has become an important election plank. The current Maharashtra government has promised to fast-track the project’s start in the next three months. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 28,000 crore.
