Shivalik Ventures has bagged the Rs3,500 crore project to redevelop Golibar Maidan, a cluster of slums located along the Western Express highway between Santa Cruz and Khar.
The state government has handed the redevelopment of a 140-acre plot to a single developer, skipping the competitive bidding process, by invoking a little-known clause of the Slum Rehabilitation Act, 1971. This is the first project to be allotted using this clause.
Shivalik Ventures has bagged the Rs3,500 crore project to redevelop Golibar Maidan, a cluster of slums located along the Western Express highway between Santa Cruz and Khar.
Unitech, a listed realty company based in Delhi, has a 50% stake in the project.
Housing experts say the project developer should have been decided by competitive bidding.
Even in the case of the proposed Dharavi redevelopment, where transparency has been found wanting, the project has been split into five zones with an aim to involve as many developers, they said. “There should be no monopoly as it leads to more exploitation and offers no choice to slum dwellers,” Neera Adarkar, a housing activist, said.
The project was given to the developer under section 3k of the Slum Rehabilitation Act, 1971, which empowers the government to direct the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) “to carry out certain projects as a special case”. A project is given to a single developer under section 3k of the SRA to facilitate “holistic planning of an area”, according to Sitaram Kunte, state housing secretary.
Of the 140 acres in Golibar Maidan, 40 belong to the ministry of defence, which is yet to give its nod to the scheme. Of the remaining 100, 58 acres is in private hands while the rest belongs to public agencies like the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the suburban collector.
Ramakant Jadhav, director at Shivalik Ventures, said he got the project because he had “the mandate from 70% of the slum dwellers in a large area to carry out” the redevelopment project. “In any redevelopment scheme, the landlord is given the first choice to carry out the scheme. In this case, I own 45 of 58 acres of the private land,” he said.
“I am earning money as well as fulfilling my social responsibility of rehabilitating slum dwellers. Why should there be anything wrong in that? A single developer is much better as there is no proper planning if many many developers are involved,” he added.
While the SRA chief executive officer will have a final say in awarding the project, housing experts say it’s merely a formality. Questioning the lack of transparency in awarding the project, they said the developer, for all practical purposes, will act as town planner on behalf of the government and has the liberty to realign public amenities, such as 60-foot-wide roads, gardens and dispensaries.
“The construction began some months ago after the plans were approved, but the government, or the developer, is yet to make public how the area will be redeveloped. The secrecy is almost similar to that maintained regarding the redevelopment of Dharavi, where residents have no idea about where they will be shifted to or where public gardens and residential or commercial buildings will come up,” said a senior government official.
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