SunCorp

• Of the 223 hectares, 144 hectares will be redeveloped over 7 years
  
• Of the Rs 9,250 crore, a fifth to be spent on basic amenities
  
• Developers to build 57,531 units for rehabilitation, but sell 35% of the redeveloped area in the open market
  
• Builders to make a minimum profit of Rs 4,700 crore; critics estimate it to be ten times this figure
  
• Profits to be shared between developers and government
  
• Households to pay Rs 450 per month for maintenance
  
• The plan envisages a shuttle train service and a skybus link to the metro

Seventy thousand residents of Dharavi, Asia's largest slum in the heart of Mumbai, are angry. They want to have a say in the state's redevelopment plan to demolish their houses and build a new township. They have decided to let the policymakers know about their angst. "We are protesting against the state's rigid stance in imposing the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) on its extremely dissatisfied residents. We want the chief minister to see for himself how the people of Dharavi will behave in case they're pushed too far," says Arputham Jockin, Magsaysay award winner and the president of the National Slum Dwellers Federation.

The anti-DRP agitation has acquired a political tinge with the formation of the Dharavi Bachao Samiti (DBS), which has 20,000 members. During last week's municipal polls, the Samiti, along with the CPI(M), fielded its candidates in all the six electoral wards in Dharavi, which has been a Congress stronghold. It's a shrill reminder that the tussle in the slum has transcended issues of development to become a contentious political battle.

Dharavians complain the DRP doesn't even require their consent unlike other slum redevelopment schemes, is ill-planned and hasn't considered the existing socio-economic realities, that it would really benefit the builders and the state government. In addition, they feel that powerful lobbies have shaped the contours of the Dharavi plan. Not surprisingly, over eight years after it was conceived, and four years after the DRP was included in the Vision Mumbai plan, there have been several hiccups in Dharavi's proposed makeover.

But before we get into specific issues, a quick reminder about DRP. The project will cost Rs 9,250 crore, of which Rs 1,800 crore will be spent on civic amenities. Two-thirds of the total area of 223 hectares will be redeveloped as a township by builders, under the private-public partnership model. Over 57,500 residential units—225 sq ft (1 BHK) each—in 7-storey buildings will be given free to existing households. Of the total redeveloped area of 144 hectares, the builder will be allowed to sell 35 per cent of the land as residential or commercial spaces in the open market.

Similar rules regarding free units and open sale govern other slum development plans in the state. The glaring difference is that the other schemes require the consent of 70 per cent of the residents, but in DRP's case, the state government has omitted this condition. Instead, it invoked an existing clause in the development control regulations, which states that projects undertaken by government agencies on public land don't require the approval of the affected slum-dwellers. And this has now become the primary issue for DBS. Complains Raju Korade, a CPI(M) member and the editor of Dharavi Times, "Many surveys have been conducted for DRP, but the people don't have a clue as to what exactly the plan holds for them."

Adding to this confusion are other arguments being raised by DRP detractors. Arputham is using religion to drive his point home.

 In the last three weeks, he has advertised the fact that the DRP project document doesn't mention what will happen to the 110 religious structures (of all religions and some that are nearly 100 years old) in Dharavi Korade questions the state's motives. "The DRP's aim is not to ameliorate the conditions of the families living and working in Dharavi for the past 100 years. It's to access and auction prime property, with proximity to the city's financial centres (like the Bandra-Kurla Complex), to global bidders," he says.
The pro-DRP lobby sees such views as misrepresentations. "This is another ploy to needlessly undermine a project of this magnitude that has been undertaken for the first time in the world, and is likely to be emulated elsewhere in India and in other countries," says an angry Mukesh Mehta, CEO, MM Consultants, the state-appointed consultant for DRP. He argues it will integrate Dharavi with Mumbai, convert slums into a cultural-knowledge-business centre, and transform Dharavians into a middle-income community by 2010. CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, feels the DRP is for the "development of Dharavi and the city, so people should cooperate with us."