Redeveloped Dharavi houses to be bigger

In regard to its plans of redeveloping Dharavi, the state government plans to increase the area of houses tenants residing there from 350 square feet, according to the initial plan, to 405 square feet after a section of residents had protested against being given only 350 square feet.

The residents had claimed that the state government’s move will be unfair to as it would be giving every slum dweller an area of 350 square feet who are currently residing in say 100 or 150 square feet slums and it is giving an equal area to tenants residing in an area of 500-700 square feet in chawls and buildings.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis with housing minister Prakash Mehta, top bureaucrats and senior BJP leaders.

“The chief minister directed us that the developers will be given total 35 per cent additional area through fungible floor space index (FSI), which increase the tenement size from 350 square foot to 405 square foot increasing tenement size of every unit from chawls and buildings,” said a bureaucrat not wishing to be named.

The project will be implemented through the PPP model and will get a floor space index of 4. It will be redeveloped under development control regulation (DCR) 33 (9) (A), which was framed for the redevelopment of Dharavi.

The Dharavi Redevelopment Authority (DRA) is the implementing agency of the project, which also conducted a pre-bid meeting on March 5, in which 16 developers from around the world participated.

The bids for the redevelopment initially were to be opened on April 7. However, in order to keep the situation in control in light of the protests from the residents backed by the Shiv-Sena and Congress leaders, the state government decided to open the bids on April 20.

Meanwhile, residents occupying units in chawls and buildings have claimed that the government’s move is an eyewash. “They have now decided give extra area of 55 square foot in terms of dry balcony from fungible FSI and nothing additional in terms of wall to wall carpet area. We will not allow the government to start the project,” said Paresh Mote, resident of Dharavi.

The project has also created rift between the Shiv-Sena and BJP. Baburao Mane, ex-MLA from Dharavi said, “We want the government to give every resident of chawl and building an area of 750 square feet. If that is not given, the Shiv Sena will not allow the government to initiate the process of redevelopment.”