Dharavi revamp finds no bidders for the fourth time

The redevelopment of Asia’s largest slum cluster, Dharavi, found no bidders for the fourth time in a row compelling the state government to extend the dates for bidding for another one month.

The state government had on January 30, 2016 floated global tenders of Rs 22,000 crore for which it had opened the bids on March 20 where it did not find any takers. The government was therefore compelled to give an extension by further opening the bids first up to May 5 which was again extended till May 20. But that too did not yield any results, further compelling the state government to push the date for bidding till June 21, 2016.

“The developers who have shown interest in the pre-bid meetings held two times had suggested a few changes in the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and Floor Space Index (FSI) on which the state government is working. The reason that developers are not bidding for the project could be that they are trying wait and watch policy to see what changes the government makes in the tender document,” said a senior state government official.

At the pre-bid meeting held by the DRP in March and April, several national and international developers were present to clarify their concerns. However, it looks like none of the developers bid for the project.

According to the tender, tenants will get houses of 350 square feet instead of 300 square feet as recommended by the former Congress-NCP government. The state government has divided the 557-acre plot into five sectors for redevelopment. Of these, sectors one to four are with the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) while Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) has already started redeveloping the remaining sector.

The project will get a Floor Space Index of 4 and will be redeveloped under development control regulation (DCR) 33 (9) (A) and 33 (10) (A).