Authority to rehabilitate 672 families at Dharavi by next yr

Nearly six years after Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) was assigned by the state government to revamp the fifth sector of Dharavi Slum, the authority has able to rehabilitate only 331 residents so far and claims to complete the construction of 672 houses by 2018. The 153-acre area has more than 9, 000 residents who will be rehabilitated.

Commenting that the Dharavi Redevelopment work is going on at a snail's pace, activists have criticised the authority's lethargic attitude to complete the decade long project. Announced in 2004, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project aims at revamping India's largest slum spread across more than 500 acres into a plush township.

The revamp of the fifth sector under the purview of MHADA involves rehabilitating 9,300 families who will move to bigger houses and create an additional 5,000 affordable houses approximately. The survey to determine eligible beneficiaries for the project will be conducted by deputy collector.

While the fifth sector revamp continues to move at a slow pace, the redevelopment of other four sectors is in a fix with no developer selected to complete the project. Attempts to tender out the project have repeatedly failed owing to stricter conditions and handling such a huge project. The authority has now decided to subdivide the four sectors into 12 different parts since tendering out smaller sections will be helpful to attract more participation in the project.

The entire cost of the projects is nearly Rs 22,000 crore wherein approximately more than 55,000 families will be rehabilitated into a better structure. According to the plan, each eligible beneficiaries of the redevelopment scheme will get an area of 350 square feet. The decided area was opposed by the Shiv Sena which demanded a minimum area of 405 square feet.

The entire project is divided into five sectors wherein the first four sectors will be developed by public private partnership and the fifth sector will be developed by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).