Dharavi redevelopment: Work begins on moving residents to Matunga

Mumbai: Work on buildings to house Dharavi residents who are found eligible for free housing within the slum cluster has taken off in the six acres of railway land in Matunga allotted to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Private Limited (DRPPL). Railway staff quarters located on the plot are currently being demolished to make way for 20-25 storeyed buildings with five levels of basement parking, said sources. Around 40,000 tenements in the slum cluster have already been surveyed to identify residents eligible for free housing, the sources added.
Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, is being redeveloped by the Adani Realty-led DRPPL. The company won the bid to redevelop the slum cluster spread over 240 hectares of prime land in the heart of the city in November 2022. According to the project proposal, residents whose tenements were constructed prior to January 1, 2000 and those living on the ground floor would be given tenements within Dharavi, while ineligible residents would be accommodated elsewhere. The state government is currently conducting a door-to-door survey to determine which among Dharavi’s three lakh tenements and their residents would be eligible for free housing.
Sources said the six-acre plot in Matunga, where a low-key ground breaking ceremony was held on September 12, will be used to accommodate hundreds of residents found eligible for free housing.
“We are currently conducting soil testing work at the plot,” said a government official aware of the workings of DRPPL. Since the Matunga-Mahim area is located close to the airport, a height restriction is applicable on constructions. “Accordingly, the new buildings would be 20-25 storeyed, at most, with uniformly sized apartments measuring 350 square feet,” said the official. The buildings will be equipped with multipurpose halls, indoor games areas, playhouses, outdoor gyms, badminton and volleyball courts, walkways and gardens. They will also have basement parking at five levels, each level accommodating at least 100 vehicles.
DRPPL has already received around 29 acres out of the 47.5 acres of railway land allocated for the project. “A meeting was held recently to facilitate transfer of the remaining land. As and when we more rail land, salt pan land and dumping ground land, we will start work on more buildings to shift project-affected people,” said the official quoted earlier.
HT has been reporting on the state housing department’s efforts to rehabilitate Dharavi residents who are found ineligible for free housing within the slum cluster. Although the department has mooted various locations like Mulund, Kurla, Dahisar, Wadala and Deonar where residents could be shifted, no location has been finalised owing to protests against the move by concerned residents of these areas.