Dharavi Slum Redevelopment Project gets a boost

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has taken over a plot for the construction of transit camps to house slumdwellers who will be displaced because of the Dharavi Slum Redevelopment Project.

The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has also cleared 1,69,184 tenements in Dharavi for redevelopment out of which 25,591 tenements have already been constructed. The redevelopment project will benefit 71,000 families and 5,000 small scale industrial units in the area.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced in the Assembly on Friday that similar projects will be taken up based on the response to the pilot project in Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar (Ghatkopar), Kurla, Jogeshwari and other slum pockets in the city.

Replying to supplementaries moved by Suresh Gambhir (Shiv Sena) and others, the CM clarified that redevelopment of 13 cooperative housing societies will be done as per norms laid down by SRA. However, this will not affect the rest of the redevelopment project.

Deshmukh said that the government SRA norm for seeking approval from 70 per cent of the original inhabitants for redevelopment has already been upheld by the court. He said that the decision to grant an incentive 4 FSI to private builders for remaining lands has been taken considering the thick density of tenements in the area.

Salient features of Dharavi Slum Redevelopment Project: .

The five year Dharavi Redevelopment Project worth Rs 8,600 crores was drawn up on February 4, 2004 in view of the dense combination of commercial and residential structures.

The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) had come up with a Rs 6,380 crore plan for redeveloping Dharavi slums by 2010.

The center, state and HUDCO are to jointly finance the plan. Global tenders to be floated and project to be implemented by private builders.

Original slumdwellers living prior to January 1, 1995 to be relocated in newly built buildings with 225 sq ft free tenement.

Plan envisages plush residential and commercial complexes, hospitals, schools and colleges.

15 percent of the land is to be reserved for open green spaces and playgrounds.

Private builders to get 4 FSI as incentive for commercial exploitation of remaining land.

Spread over 174 hectares of land Dharavi billed as Asia's largest slum connects the Island city with suburban Mumbai.

Connects East-West Express Highways also Western, Eastern and Harbour lines of the suburban railway network.

Close to 6 lakh people and 71,000 families live in the slum.

Houses about 5,000 small scale units producing intermediary goods, houses leather tanneries. SSI units here generate Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore turnover annually.

Former PM AB Vajpayee had granted Rs 500 crores for developing infrastructure like roads, drainage systems by the BMC.