LATE DISCOVERY Fraction of targeted beneficiaries eligible, bid now to create more, smaller sectors

The much-delayed Dharavi Redevelopment Plan is set to return to the drawing board, with little hope of an early launch to what is an ambitious and critical part of the Mumbai Makeover project.

Five years after the government passed a resolution to implement the multi-crore project with a special-township approach, an expert committee appointed by the government is now working on an “alternative” plan. The re-look has been prompted by the realisation that the project, in its current form, will benefit only a fraction of the target group.

With an entirely new plan proposed, not only are further delays imminent, but allegations that the new proposal is designed only at scuttling the existing project are also expected, officials and stakeholders said.

Worse, while senior bureaucrats ostensibly studied the current project design for several months before declaring a special FSI of 4, officials are now debating “basic conceptual flaws” in the scheme.

MHADA vice-president and officer on special duty for the project Gautam Chatterjee confirmed he has written to the chief secretary asking for a “re-look at the criteria for eligibility of slumdwellers” after an initial assessment for one of Dharavi’s current five sectors showed that only about 38 per cent of the residents had proof of having lived there since before 2000. All slum-dwellers who settled in Dharavi before January 1, 2000, are eligible for free 269 sq ft homes under the scheme.

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