Mixed reactions from residents of the Dhobi Ghat area

Ram Mallya, a resident of Sai Baba Nagar who's tenement has gone in for redevelopement under the project said, " We have received the agreement and the builder has promised us that they will give us homes in 22 months. They have also given us the cheques for rent. But we are feeling jittery about it due to past experiences of other redevelopment projects. Other developers have not released homes even after the due date in case of other redevelopment projects."

"We have shifted and left our home after signing an agreement of over 200 pages, but there is a sense of uncertainty about the homes we will get," he said.

Ashok Saryam, who lives in Sane Guruji Nagar, said, "We are happy that we are getting good homes in return for our small houses."

Some dhobis in the area were worried about how their business would be affected. " We are around 750 dhobis who were living in these tenements and our livelihood depends upon the washing business only. In Sai Baba Nagar, we used to dry the washed cloths, but now the land has been taken under the SRA development scheme. We may get flats, but how would we get the land to dry the washed cloths?," said a dhobi who did not wish to be named.

"Earlier, the builder had said that they will provide us land for washing, but nothing was mentioned in the agreement. We don't know exactly what is going to happen," he added