Dharavi Redevelopment Project

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Dharavi Redevelopment Project- Relevance for UPSC Exam

General Studies I: Urbanization, Their Problems & Remedies

The Maharashtra government gave the go-ahead for fresh tenders in the Dharavi redevelopment project, almost two decades after it was first proposed.

Dharavi, famous as one of the world’s largest slums is located in the heart of India’s financial capital – Mumbai.
The Dharavi slum came into being in 1884. It was originally inhibited by fisherfolk when the area was still creeks, swamps.
A city within a city, it is one unending stretch of narrow dirty lanes, open sewers and cramped huts.
It became attractive to migrant workers from South Mumbai and others when the swamp began to fill in due to natural and artificial causes.
The area grew as poor rural Indians migrated to urban Mumbai.
Today, an estimated 600,000 to 1 million people live crammed in Dharavi.
While the land (area of 535 acres) is owned by the government, the houses are maintained by individuals.

Dharavi is situated near the India’s richest business district, the Bandra-Kurla Complex, where commercial office premiums are among the highest in the country.
The slum sprawl, spread over 2.8 sq.km. is home to an informal leather and pottery industry which employs over a lakh people.

The state had envisaged this sprawl be transformed into a cluster of high-rises with improved urban infrastructure.
It entailed resettling 68,000 people, including slum dwellers and those with commercial establishments.
The state was to provide 300-sqft houses for free to residents with proof that their slum structure was in existence before January 1, 2000.
The project was initially mooted in 2004, but never got off the ground due to various reasons.

In 1999, the government first proposed to redevelop Dharavi.
Thereafter, the government of Maharashtra in the year 2003-04 decided to redevelop Dharavi as an integrated planned township.
An action plan for redevelopment was approved by issuing a government resolution.
It was decided to develop Dharavi by using land as a resource to cross-subsidie the cost of development through a sale component on the basis of the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme.
The government also decided to notify the whole of Dharavi as an undeveloped area and to appoint a Special Planning Authority for its development.
In 2011, the government cancelled all tenders and drew up a master plan.