Three years after the Maharashtra government gave its nod for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, two years after it was named one of the ‘quick win’ projects on the great Mumbai makeover and innumerable delays later, state government officials have finally given the go-ahead to expediting the release of the expression of interest documents, the first step in the global tendering process.

Senior officials said the Expression of Interest documents were in an advanced stage of preparation and will be submitted to Chief Secretary D K Sankaran this week.

“It should take a month at most for the Expression of Interest documents to be ready,” confirmed Sanjay Ubale, secretary (Special Projects), among those present at Saturday’s presentation by I S Chahal, officer on special duty for the Dharavi project. “We also discussed the issue of transport linkages to connect Dharavi with the rest of the city. It is, after all, located in the middle of the north-south corridor and proper connectivity will be necessary.”

Project management consultant Mukesh Mehta, also present at the meeting, said the decision was to proceed “as soon as possible” on the global tendering. “Care has been taken that Dharavi is well-connected with the city and we will also be discussing this further with traffic authorities,” he added.

The presentation on the Rs 9,000-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project was attended by empowered committee chairperson Chief Secretary D K Sankaran, senior bureaucrats from the housing department and the municipal corporation, chairman of Bombay First Narinder Nayar, Jamshed Godrej, Noel Tata and others.

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