Adani set to bag Dharavi redevelopment project

The Adani Group on Tuesday emerged as the frontrunners to helm one of the country’s largest urban renewal projects, the redevelopment of Dharavi. Their bid of ₹5,069 crores was significantly higher than their competitors.

Dharavi sits on 240 hectares of prime land in the heart of Mumbai and its redevelopment, first proposed formally by the then Congress CM Sushil Kumar Shinde in 2004, involves rehabilitation of over 60,000 families and 13,000 commercial units in tenements of 405 sq ft. It also entails the developer acquiring 25.62 hectares of private land. A slew of concessions will be provided to the Special Purpose Vehicle formed by the developer apart from the 4 FSI and Transferable Development Rights which could be utilised by the developer anywhere in the city.

Mukesh Mehta, the man who originally set out to redevelop Dharavi way back in 1997, said, “It is good that a responsible company will be chosen... hopefully they do justice to the urban poor and residents of Dharavi.”

The Adanis, who had lost the bid during the 2019 global tender, had placed a bid for ₹5,069 crore while the DLF group had put in a bid of ₹2025 crore and the third bidder, Shree Naman Group’s bid was rejected on technical grounds.

Mumbai-based firm Sandeep Shikre and Associates were the lowest bidder. Unlike in 2018, the Eknath Shinde-led government had floated the global tender on October 1 for the Project Management Consultants along with the main bidders.

The base price for the bids was ₹1,600 crore. The Adani Group had bid alone though the norms allowed a consortium to have a lead partner and a technical collaborator.

“The government will now give its approval and take further decisions,” said SVR Srinivas, the Metropolitan Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of Dharavi Redevelopment Authority.