Mumbai: Housing Department officials are looking at options to redevelop Dharavi, following the collapse of a ground-plus-one structure in the area last week, which left 11 people injured.
Officials indicated that redevelopment of the entire area will be taken up in a sector-wise manner as opposed to addressing “minor incidents”.
A think-tank under the Chief Secretary, comprising the Urban Department Secretary, Housing Department Secretary and Revenue and Forest Department Secretary among others, is studying the issue and will give a go-ahead for the next step to be taken under the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan.
State officials said Dharavi’s redevelopment is also being considered under the Prime Minister’s Awas Yojna, which comes under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
“One principle we have for Dharavi is that we are targeting a unified development of the area,” a senior government official who did not wish to be named, said.
The scheme to develop the area has lapsed despite the government floating tenders and relaxing many conditions, as no final agreement was made with builders, he said. “So we are looking at other ways to go about it, like competitive bidding along with community participation. Talks are also on with NBCC (India) Limited for redeveloping Dharavi.”
Asked about measures the BMC plans to take to prevent such incidents, Ramakant Biradar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, G-North Ward, said, “There are 65 lakh slum dwellers in Mumbai living in at least 13 lakh such houses. It is not possible for us to send everyone a notice. These structures do not have structural audits done by engineers either, so it is not possible to keep a record of each one of them.”
Mr. Biradar said all the slum dwellers in Dharavi were protected under the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan, but no measures had been initiated to protect individual houses. “It will be to too complicated to issue notices to every ‘jhopda’ in these areas,” he said.
The State government had, on January 30, 2016, floated global tenders worth Rs 22,000 crore for the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan. The plan, however, had no takers.
The government was compelled to give an extension till May 5, 2016, which did not yield any results either.
Officials said developers were not keen on taking up such a big project. Besides, post-demonetisation, developers said a financial crunch had hampered progress on the project.
However, the Housing Department, which is keen on changing the face of the slum, discussed a few options, including the Prime Minister’s Awas Yojna (though the scheme currentlycovers rural areas) with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at a recent meeting.
