Redevelopment will kill Dharavi's identity, destroy its small-scale businesses, say residents

The process to redevelop Dharavi, the biggest slum colony in Mumbai, may have begun with the Adani Group emerging as the highest bidder for the project, but the local residents are not really happy with the idea of redevelopment and have a number of apprehensions about it, with some saying the area will lose its international identity as a large number of foreigners visit it as tourists.

Most of the local residents expressed fear that redevelopment will kill the small businesses in Dharavi that it is known for and that they are content with the way things are at present. They said they are uncertain about what they will be offered after redevelopment.

The Adani Group has emerged as the highest bidder for the 259-hectare Dharavi Redevelopment Project. The group has put in a Rs 5,069 crore bid for the redevelopment of one of the largest slum sprawls in the world, outbidding DLF, which had quoted Rs 2,025 crore, chief executive officer of the project S V R Srinivas said on Tuesday.

The bid is for the entire Rs 20,000-crore project, and the total timeline for the project is seven years to rehabilitate the 6.5 lakh slum dwellers who are spread over 2.5 sq km area right now, he said. The residents of the slum do not appear happy with the government's decision to redevelop it.

Dharavi, located in central parts of the country's financial capital, is a hub for several small-scale, unorganised industries that manufacture medicines, leather, footwear, clothes among other things. It is known as one of Asia's biggest slum clusters.