DHARAVI REVAMP PROJECT GOES TO DUBAI FIRM

MUMBAI: The ₹22,000-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), which aims to revamp the largest slum in the country into a plush township, will be executed by the Dubai-based Seclink Group.

Seclink defeated Adani Infrastructure to win the bid after it quoted ₹7,200 crore for the plan. The decision was made by the state government’s empowered group of secretaries headed by chief secretary Dinesh Kumar Jain. “We have finalised Seclink for the project,” said Sanjay Kumar, additional chief secretary (housing).

Under the new plan, 59,160 families who have been residing at Dharavi prior to the year 2000, will get new and bigger homes. As per the plan, the 12,976 commercial units in Dharavi will be rehabilitated nearby. The families which settled in Dharavi between the years 2000 and 2011 will not get free homes. However, they will get subsidised homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme.

The ambitious 535-acre Dharavi revamp project was conceived in 2004 and has been surrounded by controversies since then. Despite floating global tenders, it has not been able to take off yet.

Last year, the state reworked the project. It scrapped the earlier idea to divide Dharavi into five sectors and instead floated tenders for the entire township. The plan got a further boost after the ministry of railways agreed to lease 87 acres of its land between Dharavi and Dadar for the project. This land will be leased to the state at a nominal cost for 10 years.

According to Seclink’s website, the company is backed by the royal family offices of the Middle East and funds large-scale infrastructure projects and redevelopment of slums.