Dharavi has the peculiar cachet of being famous as Asia’s largest slum. But it is also a thriving, bustling place for entrepreneurship and home to hundreds of thousands. The government has embarked on an ambitious plan to redevelop Dharavi, to provide legalised housing for all those who live there as well as to allow private businesses and developers to move in. Mukesh Mehta, consultant for Dharavi redevelopment project, speaks to Puneet Nicholas Yadav about how this mammoth task will be undertaken.

The Dharavi redevelopment plan is an ambitious project. Considering the number of people that are likely to be affected by it, what are the most important issues that need to be tackled?

This is a very complex project. As many as 57,000 structures, commercial and residential, will be affected. The biggest task is to implement the plan without substantially changing the existing development conditions in the area. Imperative issues such as the schooling of the children from the area, business of the industrial units, shifting of people into transit camps, all need to be tackled sensitively. We want various NGOs and the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to help us with acclimatising the people of Dharavi to their new lifestyle, which is the greatest challenge.

How do you plan to deal with the issue of minimum consent? If that clause is done away with would it not amount to a violation of the SRA rules on rehabilitation?

It was in 2002 that the government of Maharashtra came up with a law that the clause of minimum consent would not be applicable to projects that are undertaken by government agencies. We are simply following the guidelines of the government. Secondly, the Dharavi project will be divided into different phases and each will be developed by different developers.  It would only create confusion if each of the developers is asked to prove the minimum consent individually. Thus under SRA, minimum consent would not be required as per set guidelines for rehabilitation.

Most slum-dwellers claim that they have not been informed about the nuances of the plan and how it would affect them. How can a project that is likely to affect lakhs of people be implemented without their being apprised of the details?

We are aware that we need to spread more information about the plan amongst the project-affected persons. But it is not that we haven’t informed them at all. The SRA had printed about 70,000 pamphlets and booklets in various languages which explained all issues like eligibility, facilities and other issues in depth. These were distributed to the families and the industrial units in Dharavi. We also conducted about 200 to 300 mass meetings to apprise the people of these issues. But some miscreants have been trying to foil all our attempts for their vested interests.

The redevelopment plan proposes 225 sq feet allotments in exchange for current holdings to the slum dwellers. Many of the current dwellers stay in joint families with holdings of more than 500 sq feet and also use their holdings to run their businesses. How would the plan benefit them in terms of allotments and business?

The government of Maharashtra has taken the decision to allot 225 sq feet tenements to all Project Affected Persons as per their standard rehabilitation policy. Another issue is that if we have to give them land corresponding to their present holding, where would we get the space to effectively carry out rehabilitation on such a large scale?

Various industries like plastic recycling, leather tanning, garments, pottery, jewellery and others co-exist in this microcosm. People fear that these would be destroyed by private developers after the plan is implemented. What would be the fate of these industries?

One thing that needs to be clear is that industrial units such as leather tanneries and plastic recycling are banned in Dharavi as they pollute the atmosphere. People who own or operate these units have the option of moving to areas where the government has allowed such industries to function. But we know that these people would not shift and thus the option that they have is to change their product line. For instance, leather tanners can deal in other products, such as leather items and so on. The government would also be providing them land to set up their units in Dharavi itself.

It is said that global developers would be selected to develop each sector of Dharavi. Would these developers understand the diversity of the place in terms of the various communities, professions and the industries that exist here?

We will float global bids but that doesn’t mean that the work would only be awarded to global developers. Consortiums can be worked out with Indian developers and consultants so that the socio-economic structure of Dharavi could be maintained. We understand that global bidders would not understand issues peculiar to Dharavi and would keep in mind all such reservations while awarding the work to developers for the different phases of the plan.