Redevelopment of one of five sectors to kick off soon The Maharashtra government on Saturday issued orders that would enable the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to undertake redevelopment of one of the five sectors of Dharavi,thus clearing the decks for the long delayed project to take off. While bids had been invited from global real estate giants in 2007,fresh tenders are likely to be invited soon for only four of the five sectors the sprawling slum colony,has been divided into. A roadmap will be prepared following a meeting on Tuesday, said Principal Secretary (Housing) Gautam Chatterjee,adding that the government hopes work will start soon on one of the sectors. Of the five sectors carved out of the slum for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project,Sector 5 is the least complex,as it has a lower population density and is without encumbrances posed by small recycling units that dot the other sectors. It also has fewer issues of land ownership to be tackled. The 62-hectare Sector 5 includes areas adjoining the Mahim Nature Park and large swathes of land owned by ONGC and the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking. The proposal to develop one of the sectors through MHADA was initiated last year after the Rs 15,000-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project ran into trouble with a committee of experts raising several doubts over the wisdom of further densifying the slum. Questions had also been raised about excessive profits likely to be made by private developers. In June 2010,a MHADA proposal before the chief minister had stated that the housing board was facing a severe land crunch for developing housing stock and by using money raised from selling commercial space in Sector 5 to cross-subsidise rates of residential units,it would be able to build several thousand affordable homes. About a third of the houses would be reserved for economically weaker sections and lower income groups while the remaining will be for those that fit MHADAs definition of middle and higher income groups. With Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections due early next year,Congress activists in Dharavi,too,have been demanding that unless there is some visible progress on the project,the party could see its support base in Dharavi,a traditional stronghold,dented.
