Dharavi redevelopment: With polls ahead, residents gear up for political promises again

The timeline of all previous major decisions, when the ambitious project actually inched forward, shows that at least five of these coincide with the run-up to either the Lok Sabha, Assembly or civic elections since the project’s formal inception.

The project itself was formally conceived in February 2004 when the state housing department issued a government resolution to redevelop Dharavi as a comprehensive, integrated development project. It was the year of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The same year, the state government accepted a proposal of Mukesh Mehta, a project management consultant, for the slum sprawl’s redevelopment.

Next, in December 2006, the then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh signed the ‘Expression of Interest’ documents to invite global tenders, just two months before elections to BMC. Tendering, however, was stalled due to the poll code of conduct, and the government ultimately invited bids after elections in June 2007.

Then, just before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, in September 2008, an expert that the government consulted had found the entire tendering process to be defective. The expert said bids ignored political risks, delays in approvals, and an analysis of trends in the real estate market. However, the bids were kept alive.
It was only in May 2011, less than a year before the 2012 civic polls, that the Congress-NCP government cancelled the tendering process and handed over the mandate of sector 5 to Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to show some progress before the elections. After that, the project did not create any buzz until 2014, the year of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, when the MHADA was close to completing one building in Sector 5, three years after it was given the mandate.

“Politicians always talk about giving us free, new houses before elections. After elections, no one turns up until it is time for the next election. But this is the first time that the BJP government has made a promise. We can only hope that at least this time, it’s not an empty one,” says 60-year-old Meghjibhai Tank, a potter sitting on the footsteps of his tiny home, which is also his workshop.

This time, ahead of the February 2017 BMC polls, not only has the BJP-led state government approved tender documents for the other four sectors of Dharavi planning to invite bids this month, but it has also given the impression to have conceded to a long-standing demand of its ally for bigger houses.

By adding fungible area, an area occupied by flowerbeds, niches and voids, to the original carpet area of 300-square-foot that was promised to eligible slum dwellers free of cost, the government is now offering 350-square-foot, without actually increasing the tenement size as per plans.

Raju Korde, convenor of the Dharavi Bachao Aandolan, said, “The Dharavi redevelopment project has been like a merry-go-round. The government is creating an illusion on the larger tenement size, and local politicians here are further strengthening that impression. To be frank, I have not seen any real political will for the project.”

manasi.phadke@expressindia.com