Dharavi redevelopment plan runs into fresh roadblocks

Project allocated only Rs 45 crore,work can only be carried out on 0.3 hectares.

Even as the state government announced a slew of policy changes hoping to expedite the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) in the run-up to the BMC election,post-poll reality check by the housing board has shown that the project implementation is set to be anything but smooth-sailing. The DRP has been allocated merely Rs 45 crore in the housing boards Rs 6,459 crore budget for the year ahead.

About Rs 25 crore is for phase I of redeveloping sector 5 and another Rs 20 crore is for appointing a consultant who will chalk out details for the project. On the eve of elections,the state government gave the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) the mandate for redeveloping sector 5 of Dharavi along with approving a policy that ensured that even those tenants who have started living in an eligible hutment after the official cut-off date will get free housing. While the move was meant to set the long-delayed Rs 15,000 crore DRP rolling,MHADA officials said they are now faced with a host of problems that need to be ironed out before the project can take off and be executed over the next five years.

Of the 2 sq km area of Dharavi,sector 5 spans over 23 hectares. Of this,the Rs 25 crore budgetary provision would be used to construct on only 0.3 hectares of land. This piece of land belongs to MHADA and is the only plot in the sector that is free of any encumbrances. The housing board plans to construct a 14-storey building with 344 tenements on this bit. The rest belongs to the BMC,Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA),BEST Undertaking,Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC),private landlords or houses slums as well as the Mahim Nature Park.

Moreover,a large number of shanties are on Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) 1 land along the Mithi river where development is prohibited. Several other hutments are under the high-tension line along Sion station where we wont be able to construct either. It will be difficult for MHADA to consume the entire FSI of 4 as these will have to be moved to the remaining land, said a senior MHADA official.

He added that sector 5 falls under the airport funnel zone where buildings cant go higher than 20 storeys despite the higher FSI for making the project financially self-sustainable. Also,while MHADA is supposed to rehouse the locals in 300 sq ft houses,provide a corpus of Rs 40,000 per house and take care of its maintenance for 20 years,it has to contend with demands from locals for at least 400-sq ft free houses.

The Rs 20 crore allocation for phase II is for appointment of a consultant who would prepare a socio-economic profile of the households,namely Management Information System (MIS) and the Geographical Information System (GIS). While a social survey was carried out by the nonprofit organization Mashal earlier,a fresh survey is required as it did not take into account the mezzanine floors that have come up over the ground floor hutments nor does it have a count of the residents living in Dharavi post the 2000 cut-off date. The consultant would also draw up plans for land use,infrastructure,architectural design and financial feasibility model and supervise the project execution.

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