In yet another push for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, the state government on Saturday floated global tenders of approximately Rs 22,000 crore for Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum cluster.
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 one sector.
“The proposed completion period of construction of rehab, renewal within seven years from signing the development agreement. Developers will have to construct free housing for eligible slum dwellers and occupants, including amenities and infrastructure as per terms and conditions mentioned in the bid document. Following which, the developer will be entitled to construct free sale area to sell in the market,” said the tender document.
There are over 57,000 slum structures, housing a population of over 3.5 lakh. However, slum dwellers have been opposing the state government’s proposal to redevelop Dharavi. “The government may have floated tenders but it has not yet conducted a survey of slum dwellers nor have the slum dwellers been taken into confidence,” said Janardhan Tawde, President, Dharavi Bachao Andolan.
Nirmal Deshmukh, chief executive officer, DRP, said, “We will complete survey on the fresh number of slum dwellers within six months and only after that will the process of redevelopment start. We have high hopes on developers bidding from foreign countries. Also, separate buildings will be constructed for commercial and residential slum dwellers.”
Evaluation of bids will be done on technical and financial qualification and no bidder will be selected as developer for more than one 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).
