Finally, it's 'lock kiya jaye' for these slumdog millionaires

Bhagoati Das didn’t have the slightest clue that the two huts he was investing in would help him strike gold half a century later. The hovels, which he bought for Rs40 each at a time when his salary as a cigarette factory worker was just Rs25, are today collectively worth Rs1.40 crore.

Das, along with about 700 others in the slum pockets around the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Vile Parle, has been offered Rs70 lakh per shanty by a consortium of builders, which is allegedly working on developing commercial spaces there.

While a majority of hutment owners have warmed up to the offer, a few have sought an apartment in exchange.

Seventy-year-old Das has seen the landscape change over the decades. “When I first came here, it was marshy land. Even the western express highway wasn’t here at the time. The amount I have been offered is good,” he reasons.

Haresh Borkhetarya, 57, a retired businessman, has already begun to count his chickens; he can’t wait to hand over to a builder his two hutments, which his father bought in 1966 for Rs350. “I have struggled all my life. Now, I just want to lead a relaxed life. Maybe I will buy a flat in the extended suburb and deposit the rest of the money to earn an interest out of it.”

Anita Goria, a tuition teacher who has been living in the area for the last 12 years, too has agreed to move out. “My neighbours accepted the offer. Their homes have already been razed. I, too, will leave in the next few months.”
Residents believe that the land could eventually be offered to the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), CSIA’s operator.

The builders’ consortium includes some marble dealers whose shops are located in front of the shanties.

The buyout offer is significant in light of the recent termination of the contract between MIAL and the Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), which was entrusted with the task of rehabilitating slumdwellers around the airport.

A builder who identified himself as Deven said, “We are developing commercial spaces considering the proximity of the area to the airport and the western express highway. Those [slumdwellers] who don’t want cash will be accommodated in flats, which will be built behind the commercial area.” He rubbished the allegation that the property will later be sold to the MIAL.

Attempts to take photographs of the chawls were thwarted by some henchmen of the builders, who claimed that it was a private property.

MIAL refused to comment on the development.

Eat this!
A cafeteria with a two-storied lodge near the domestic terminal at the CSIA is rumoured to have been recently sold to the MIAL for Rs100 crore. Sources claim that the property owner’s family once held a large plot of the land where the airport has come up. Both the MIAL and the owner refused to comment on this.