The political equations have changed too. In the Dharavi Rahivashi Sangh’s office on 90-Feet Road, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai and Dr Ambedkar feature in a row of framed photos, alongside Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. In 1978, Dharvi even had a Communist MLA, Comrade Satyendra More, but the balance of power tilted long ago. Today, all six corporators belong to the Congress, as do the local MLA and the local MP.

Plus Size

THE Dharavi Bachao Samiti is negotiating pragmatically. “We want change too,” says Korde, “but in a positive way.” From the earlier blanket decision to give all eligible families 225 sq foot tenements, the stiff opposition has effected a climbdown by the authorities. Now, slumdwellers can pay a percentage of the construction cost for extra area. “At an investment of about Rs 5 lakh,” says Korde, “a family can have a carpet area of about 700 sq foot in addition to the 225 sq foot.”

In view of real estate prices in Dharavi—Rs 3,500 per sq ft for buildings that do not even face the main road, a figure certain to skyrocket once the DRP kicks off—this makes good business sense.

Yet, there are other words of caution and admonition. The state government-appointed fact-finding committee investigating the 26/7 deluge says the project proposes “too-intense” density of population: ‘’In no city in the world are densities of occupation as high...” reads the Madhavrao Chitale committee report, accepted in principle by the Deshmukh government.

Dharavi houses 700 people per hectare. Once flats for the open market are occupied and footfalls multiply at the malls, cricket museum and SEZ, that number will escalate rapidly. Litigations from private landowners, environmentalists’ concern over the FSI of 4 (the highest permissible in Mumbai) have only just begun to be expressed.

... contd.