A major part of Mumbai's historic Dhobi Ghat will be demolished on Friday and redeveloped under the slum redevelopment authority.
However, the heritage part, Dhobi vertical, will remain untouched. In fact, it will be refurbished so that foreigners and visitors will get a better view of this historic place. The heritage site is popular with foreign tourists. It has 731 washing pans and flogging stones.
The Rassiwalas (community of people traditionally drying clothes) have taken objection to this redevelopment saying it may hamper their work and the business. Developers said that most of the traditional washing and cleaning activities have been replaced by machines. It has helped conserve 50% of the water used. On Friday, out of 4000 hutments, 800 of Sane Guruji nagar will be razed. There are a total of 5000 huts in this area, with 25000 families residing. Eighty per cent of this area will be developed by Omakar developers.
The family members of those associated with the Dhobi vertical, engage in a range of services including washing, drying, ironing, dyeing and transporting clothes linen etc. The new generation of this community has moved away from the traditional business, but they continue to reside at the same place with their families.
Sources said that developer Omkar, who had undertaken this dream project has got the consent of 20,000 slum dwellers, who comprise approximately 80% of the total number of residents. This includes the biggest slum societies of Sai baba Nagar (1513 tenements or 8,000 individual slum dwellers), and Sane Guruji (955 tenements or 5,000 individual slum dwellers) among other smaller societies. The hutments whose huts are going to be demolished have been provided long term market rate rents so that they can stay in the vicinity.
The Omkar spokesperson said, "The heritage site of Dhobi Ghat, popular with foreign tourists, would turn slum-free shortly and present an appealing image to a global fraternity. In Mumbai, Dhobi Ghat and Dharavi are iconic places and the former will be revamped now," he said.
He further said that it is a record voluntary handover by 800 slum families signaling the changing sentiment of slum dwellers towards speedy implementation of SRA projects in Mumbai.
"Such an initiative augurs very well for the state government's tough agenda of 'Slum-Free Mumbai' within a shorter time frame. The redevelopment initiative to be carried out under Section 33 (10) of SRA guidelines, and will not impact or hamper the originally popular area consisting the 731 stone blocks. It will remain untouched," he said.
Earlier, Lokhandwala developers had taken up this redevelopment project but failed to get majority consent. They backed out, paving the way for Omkar developers.
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