Dharavi Redevelopment Project

[phaedrus]

totally

[mihir1310]

subin & sn1101


well the pessimistic in me is taking over the optimist ... & you know what its easy to be so with the current "leadership" we have at both state & cente . I mean what are our honorable CM , PM , FM capable of?? We do not need passive & docile people who have earned degrees from western Univ.s but people who can MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This laizzez-faire attitude hasnt done us any good before & will not do so in the future !!!!!!!. The city is crumblimg day by day & what strong actions have they taken ??? I beleived in Deshmukh when he had taken strong action against illegal encroachment in the city , but meekly buckled under "high command order" . Now he wants us to believe him???

Oh & btw i hope i do not hear the "mumbai -shanghai "crap again!!! Its oo embarrassing to hear such talk!!!

[cncity]

Wasnt there one corporate patil or some1 who was famous of bringing down illegal buildings in Mumbai etc...They should get him to do this work.

[axw11]

Khairnar ????

[cncity]

Originally Posted by axw11

Khairnar ????

Yes that must be him...

[Jim856796]

Besides Dharavi, should there be any other slums that need redevelopment?

[jubin]

'Panel for redevelopment of Dharavi slum'

MUMBAI: A coordination committee comprising locals in Dharavi would be set up for carrying out redevelopment of Asia's largest slum, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

The Sena leader met Deshmukh at Mantralaya, along with a delegation comprising Dharavi residents to highlight the 'lacuane' in the State Government's redevelopment plans for the slum.

"The Chief Minister also informed Thackeray that the Government would consider the demand for alloting 400 sq feet houses to Dharavi residents instead of the 225 sq feet houses announced earlier", Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said.

The delegation, comprising former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi and Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Ramdas Kadam, also apprised Deshmukh about problems faced by potters and fishermen, Gorhe said.

Kadam lodged a strong protest against the Deshmukh Government's decision to appoint Mukesh Patel as consultant for the Dharavi redevelopment project.

[phaedrus]

Dharavi makeover may bite the dust

A new set of parameters for the ambitious redevelopment of Dharavi may ground the Rs 9,350-crore project, fears the state government.
The technical specifications in question pertain to the size of the tenements to be offered to the beneficiaries, the number of beneficiaries, facilities for small and medium commercial establishments and floor space index (FSI) to determine the height of buildings to come up in place of shanties.
The realty slowdown, inflation and high interest rates could also prove to be dampeners as the government readies to open the project to technical bids, sources said. The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), which is the designated nodal agency for the project, has already shortlisted 19 consortia comprising three companies each for the technical bid round.
The technical bids will be called only after the revised parameters are put in place. The state expects the new parameters to be ready by September-end.
“The scenario has undergone a sea-change since the pre-qualification round. There will be pressure on the initial profit estimates due to a slowdown, inflation, and high interest rates,” admitted a government official who did not wish to be named.
In fact, some of the interested consortia have already demanded a higher FSI so that they make decent profits even if the new populist parameters are accepted. “An FSI of 4 itself has been granted as an exceptional case. But there is merit in developers’ demand for an even higher FSI if the specifications are changed midway to accommodate more people in bigger flats,” the official said.
Since the project was announced in 2004, political pressure has forced amendments to almost all the modalities. The cost, too, has gone up from Rs 5,600 crore to Rs 9,350 crore. In 2004, the cut-off date was January 1, 1995 which has been changed to January 1, 2000. Extension of the deadline alone has raised the number of beneficiaries by 10,000 to 67,000. Also, the size of each tenement that a beneficiary would get has been increased to 269 square feet (sq ft) of carpet area from 225 sq ft.
On Wednesday, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray met chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh with a demand to grant tenements of 400 sq ft carpet area to the beneficiaries. Sources told ET that the chief minister was favourably inclined towards the demand. “The new specifications will have an impact on both the business aspect of the project and its mission statement to provide a better quality of life to Dharavi residents,” an official closely associated with the project told ET.
Entrepreneur Mukesh Mehta, who has been appointed the project management consultant for Dharavi redevelopment, admitted that changes in specifications could mean a poorer deal for end-users. “I am concerned about rehabilitation of Dharavi residents. If the changes that are being demanded are accepted, Dharavi may continue to remain a shanty town,” Mr Mehta told ET. The consultant points out that the decision to provide 269 sq ft tenements has drastically reduced the percentage of land available for sale in Dharavi. “If they make it 400 sq ft, there will be lesser land available for sale, involving a compromise on the quality of facilities we will be providing the beneficiaries,” Mr Mehta said.

source economictimes epaper

[jubin]

[phaedrus]

this is never going to end. the whole project is turning into a joke

Originally Posted by Bombay Boy

lol!!

headlines in 2033

"The date for submission of bids for the RS. 123,000 crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DPR) has again been extended"

seems to be heading down this route

[Jim856796]

In this image, there appears to be a hill in the Dharavi area. I don't know how we can get rid of that hill once this area gets redeveloped. this may be a major-league hurdle.

[bhopalus]

ughh this is so disgusting, i can't wait for it all to be destroyed and redeveloped

[Suncity]

Is that picture (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../Mumbaiwu8.jpg) Dharavi or just one of the unending slum stretches from Kurla to Thane? I know the picture is taken from Wikipedia.

Dharavi in reality is not very big in area - just 1.75 sq kms! But apparently it has one million residents!!!! I think the first thing that the government needs to do is ensure a proper population census. But that would be a political hot potato.

This aerial shows Dharavi. Marked it out

photo copyright Vinod

[IndiansUnite]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Is that picture (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../Mumbaiwu8.jpg) Dharavi or just one of the unending slum stretches from Kurla to Thane? I know the picture is taken from Wikipedia.

That's the slum on CSIA's 09/27 runway approach path. HDIL is clearing out 276 acres(1.11sq km) of it.

[Illusionist]

Originally Posted by Jim856796

In this image, there appears to be a hill in the Dharavi area. I don't know how we can get rid of that hill once this area gets redeveloped. this may be a major-league hurdle.

dynamite baby

[sammyk]

Why would it be difficult to remove a hill?

[drwho]

Originally Posted by sammyk

Why would it be difficult to remove a hill?

there is no problem to remove the hill.

[bhopalus]

Mumbai's slum solution?

Mukesh Mehta wears a crisp shirt and tie as he picks his way past makeshift shacks and stinking open gutters in Dharavi, Asia's largest slum.

Dharavi is a dense labyrinth of dirt roads in the centre of India's biggest and most economically important city, Mumbai (Bombay).

Estimates of its population size vary but it is likely that up to a million people live in these crowded lanes.

But now the slum faces complete demolition under an audacious plan designed by Mr Mehta.

As a wealthy architect turned property tycoon, Mr Mehta makes an unlikely development visionary. A decade ago he became a government consultant after returning to Mumbai from his career designing bespoke mansions for rich clients in Long Island, New York.

His scheme is unique because it uses India's surging private sector to develop slums, instead of relying on government funds or international aid. It is being closely watched as a potential blueprint for a slum-free future across the developing world.

But will it offer a fair deal to the urban poor?

Win-win solution

Mukesh Mehta
Mukesh Mehta says he hopes others make money from his plans

"I'm not ashamed or embarrassed that I'm going to make money out of it," Mr Mehta told me late last year. "In fact I hope that others do too."

I first met him in his own sea-view mansion flat, in a salubrious part of Mumbai worlds away from the tower blocks being built for Dharavi residents.

He explained that the urge to turn a profit is what drives the scheme forward.

Private developers are being asked to demolish the low-rise slum and re-house the residents in tower blocks on the same site, rather than moving them out of the city.

But Dharavi is right next to a prime office district, and is surrounded by three important railway lines. The companies can use the plum real estate left over after they've built tower blocks, to build lucrative shopping malls and office blocks for the middle classes.

The poor get a home in a block in a prime location, the companies make money and Mumbai's residents get a posh new city quarter.

Theoretically at least, everyone wins.

'Bombay Dreams'

But Mr Mehta is facing an avalanche of opposition from slum locals.

His visits to Dharavi are an exercise in diplomacy. I watch him press flesh and bat away questions as crowds of industrial workers confront him.

Although Mumbai's transformation is being closely modelled on Shanghai, China's glitzy commercial capital, India's democratic system means the demands of the slum's myriad opposition groups cannot be ignored.

Annapa Konchikor is an affable, portly Dharavi shopkeeper who wanted to show me why he opposes the plan. So he invited me to sleep over in his home in the heart of the slum.

Dharavi pottery
The entrepreneurial spirit of Dharavi can been seen everywhere

Late at night we strolled around his local lane, alive with a sea of human bodies and the whirr of industry.

In parts of Dharavi almost every shack doubles up as a small scale industrial unit, where the residents stitch garments, recycle rubbish, make pots or handicrafts, melt scrap metal, or do just about anything else to make money.

They are taking advantage of what Mumbai is famous for in India.

Bollywood films celebrate Mumbai as a city where even the poorest migrant can "make it" in the informal slum economy if they work hard enough.

Annapa told me that he fears this aspect of slum life will be lost after redevelopment.

Self-made man

"If the government were developing Dharavi for the people who have been living here, it would be OK," Annapa told me.

Instead he suspects the planners real aim is to serve what he call's Mumbai's "hi-fi" groups - in other words the burgeoning middle class of white collar workers - in pushing the poor out of the city centre.
Annapa Konchickor
Annapa Konchikor worries about the prospects for the people of Dharavi

His own family were once snake charmers who migrated from south India.

Annapa was born in Dharavi and worked as a taxi driver and security guard before saving enough to open a shop in his slum shack.

Now he is a self-made man with four concrete rooms, an air conditioner and a grandchild he sends to boarding school.

His fear is that although each slum family will get a free flat of 269 square feet, the poorest locals will find it difficult to run small scale industries high up in concrete blocks.

Winners and losers

The next morning, he took me to a block where redevelopment had already happened.

The block had problems with running water and there was a pungent smell in the stairways. But despite the dire conditions, I found middle class families had snapped up almost all of the tiny apartments.
Highrise tower blocks being built for the residents of Dharavi
Block like this are being built to house the people of Dharavi

"We bought it from some lady in a slum area, she was given it by the government," I was told by a girl in American-flavoured English in one of the flats.

Her father, the main bread winner, was not home - he lives and works in Switzerland.

It will be illegal at first for slum-dwellers to sell their free flats. But the supporters of the demolition plans point out that eventually if they do sell, the poor stand to make a sizeable profit, despite having illegally squatted on slum land for free.

Poor country

So far the political campaigns and litigation by the slum activists have kept the bulldozers away.

The lobbying has seen Mukesh Mehta's plan altered in several ways that benefit the poor - allotting more square feet for the free flats, and allowing more families to apply for them.

These changes have gone some way towards pacifying the scheme's opponents. The demolition is set to start soon.

But even if many of Dharavi's current residents profit from the plan, it remains unclear whether the floods of migrants who still pour in from India's countryside will find a place to live in the redeveloped Mumbai.

Despite its economic growth, India is still a country where hundreds of millions of people live below the bread line and for many families, moving to the big cities is the only option.

City planners seem to have accepted that building a world-class financial capital is more important than catering to this influx - although few are bold enough to say this openly.

"We firmly believe that this is likely to be the way not just for Dharavi, but for the rest of India's slums and the world's slums," says Mukesh Mehta.

After all, he says, decades of aid and socialist planning have done little to remove slums. "Give me a better solution," he demands. "Until then you might want to accept this one."

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by drwho

there is no problem to remove the hill.

I didn't think it would be but the fellow above thought it would be a major hurdle. I was curious as to why he thought that.

[dvk1982]

updates on Dharavi proj...



A s Dharavi, Asia’s largest shanty town, inches to- wards a Rs13,000-crore makeover, its planned transi- tion from a squatter settle- ment of 55,000 families to an urban showpiece—with tow- ering apartments in well- planned blocks and contem- porary workplaces—will be overseen by a new chief exec- utive officer. Gautam Chatterjee, an Indi- an Administrative Service offi- cer of the 1982 batch, has been handpicked to head the Dharavi Development Author- ity by the Maharashtra gov- ernment to speed up the project after two of his prede- cessors quit in the last two years. Chatterjee was the first di- rector of the Prime Minister’s Grant Project (PMGP) which spent Rs100 crore for housing projects in Dharavi in the 1980s, and later headed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in Mumbai for three years. Jockin Arputham, head of the National Slumdwellers Federation and a Magsaysay Award winner, who has been an activist in Dharavi for 20 years, says Chatterjee’s big- gest strength is his familiarity with each bylane of the area and his concern for its people. Over the years, Dharavi, once a fishermen’s settle- ment, has turned into a colony of immigrants who live across 535 acres, less than a kilo- metre away from the Bandra- Kurla business complex. Chatterjee, 52, says “Dhar- avi is a city within a city.” Dharavi has been the subject of global attention with Du- bai-based real estate firm Limitless, Africa Israel Invest- ments Ltd and Lehman Broth- ers Inc. teaming up with Indi- an developers to bid for rede- velopment that would take seven years to finish. The makeover buzz has al- ready sent up real estate pric- es, with a single bedroom- hall-kitchen now costing more than Rs28 lakh. In his first interview to the media after being appointed CEO of Dharavi Development Authority, Chatterjee talks about the various stumbling blocks in the way of the proj- ect. Edited excerpts: Your predecessors quit abruptly. Is the CEO in a perpetual hot seat, with huge political pressure? There is a lot of pressure to execute the project fast. I don’t pay heed to any other pressure. The project is for the people of Dharavi, who have, over time, bought slum quar- ters to solve their housing problem in Mumbai because they couldn’t afford anything better. They aren’t encroach- ers. They too have paid fat amounts to slumlords to get themselves a 220 sq. ft tene- ment there. The project’s ob- jective is their mass economic upliftment by providing better alternatives of living and busi- ness opportunities. Nineteen consortiums of develop- ers qualified for the bid this Janu- ary and nothing has moved since then. There hasn’t even been a pre-bid meeting. Why? There are a number of on- going crucial surveys such as the baseline socio-economic survey and biometric surveys which will give us exact fig- ures of the number of slum- dwellers eligible for rehabili- tation. Without the survey re- sults, it would be misleading to go ahead with the bidding process because we wouldn’t be able to give the required details to bidders. Weren’t the surveys supposed to be done before floating global tenders? Yes, ideally the bidding conditions for any such proj- ect are based on these survey findings. But I am not hurry- ing the process because the entire project will shape up according to the figures that come out. Later a pre-bid meeting will be called with the short-listed teams. What are the key challenges you face to ensure that the project starts to roll? The single most crucial task is to convince and convey the message to the 55,000 families of Dharavi that the redevelop- ment is for their good and that the government is doing it to scale up their economic abili- ties. (Also), we still don’t have answers to what happens to economic activities that thrive in the area during the redevel- opment. How will they sustain through the construction peri- od when the project is execut- ed? We still have to find an- swers to how certain busi- nesses like pottery, which is generally done in ground-lev- el homes now, can be contin- ued if they are relocated on the 10th floor of a tower. Has there been a gap in communi- cation which has led to protests against the redevelopment? People across all the 85 na- gars within Dharavi need to be mobilized and I shall use all resources available, political and apolitical, to put across the right message. I am talking to the multiple groups that operate here—politicians, so- cial activists, urban planners, government and of course, the people of Dharavi—to get this project going. There are 63 ongoing slum rede- velopment projects in Mumbai. Why is Dharavi special? Dharavi is a city by itself for its sheer size and (size of) its economy and the project needs to be addressed in that light. Its redevelopment is special because it is not re- stricted to plot developments like other slum projects, but here we are modifying devel- opment regulations to give rise to a new city.
[Click To Enlarge]
A s Dharavi, Asia’s largest shanty town, inches towards a Rs13,000-crore makeover, its planned transition from a squatter settlement of 55,000 families to an urban showpiece—with towering apartments in wellplanned blocks and contemporary workplaces—will be overseen by a new chief executive officer.

Gautam Chatterjee, an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1982 batch, has been handpicked to head the Dharavi Development Authority by the Maharashtra government to speed up the project after two of his predecessors quit in the last two years.

Chatterjee was the first director of the Prime Minister’s Grant Project (PMGP) which spent Rs100 crore for housing projects in Dharavi in the 1980s, and later headed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in Mumbai for three years. Jockin Arputham, head of the National Slumdwellers Federation and a Magsaysay Award winner, who has been an activist in Dharavi for 20 years, says Chatterjee’s biggest strength is his familiarity with each bylane of the area and his concern for its people.

Over the years, Dharavi, once a fishermen’s settlement, has turned into a colony of immigrants who live across 535 acres, less than a kilometre away from the BandraKurla business complex.

Chatterjee, 52, says “Dharavi is a city within a city.” Dharavi has been the subject of global attention with Dubai-based real estate firm Limitless, Africa Israel Investments Ltd and Lehman Broth ers Inc. teaming up with Indian developers to bid for redevelopment that would take seven years to finish.

The makeover buzz has already sent up real estate prices, with a single bedroomhall-kitchen now costing more than Rs28 lakh.

In his first interview to the media after being appointed CEO of Dharavi Development Authority, Chatterjee talks about the various stumbling blocks in the way of the project. Edited excerpts:

Your predecessors quit abruptly.

Is the CEO in a perpetual hot seat, with huge political pressure?

There is a lot of pressure to execute the project fast. I don’t pay heed to any other pressure. The project is for the people of Dharavi, who have, over time, bought slum quarters to solve their housing problem in Mumbai because they couldn’t afford anything better. They aren’t encroachers. They too have paid fat amounts to slumlords to get themselves a 220 sq. ft tenement there. The project’s objective is their mass economic upliftment by providing better alternatives of living and business opportunities.

Nineteen consortiums of develop ers qualified for the bid this Janu ary and nothing has moved since then. There hasn’t even been a pre-bid meeting. Why?

There are a number of ongoing crucial surveys such as the baseline socio-economic survey and biometric surveys which will give us exact figures of the number of slumdwellers eligible for rehabilitation. Without the survey results, it would be misleading to go ahead with the bidding process because we wouldn’t be able to give the required details to bidders.

Weren’t the surveys supposed to be done before floating global tenders?

Yes, ideally the bidding conditions for any such project are based on these survey findings. But I am not hurrying the process because the entire project will shape up according to the figures that come out. Later a pre-bid meeting will be called with the short-listed teams.

What are the key challenges you face to ensure that the project starts to roll?

The single most crucial task is to convince and convey the message to the 55,000 families of Dharavi that the redevelopment is for their good and that the government is doing it to scale up their economic abilities.

(Also), we still don’t have answers to what happens to economic activities that thrive in the area during the redevelopment. How will they sustain through the construction period when the project is executed?

We still have to find answers to how certain businesses like pottery, which is generally done in ground-level homes now, can be continued if they are relocated on the 10th floor of a tower.

Has there been a gap in communi cation which has led to protests against the redevelopment?

People across all the 85 nagars within Dharavi need to be mobilized and I shall use all resources available, political and apolitical, to put across the right message. I am talking to the multiple groups that operate here—politicians, social activists, urban planners, government and of course, the people of Dharavi—to get this project going.

There are 63 ongoing slum rede velopment projects in Mumbai.

Why is Dharavi special?

Dharavi is a city by itself for its sheer size and (size of) its economy and the project needs to be addressed in that light. Its redevelopment is special because it is not restricted to plot developments like other slum projects, but here we are modifying development regulations to give rise to a new city.