Mumbai: For several years, successive State governments have cited the redevelopment of Dharavi as a priority, but little has been done on ground, either to find bidders or evolve a more nuanced approach to redevelopment. The development model pursued by the government, based on increasing FSI and relocating original residents in high rises, has long been critiqued as a top-down approach that will destroy the character of one of the city’s most vibrant economic and social spaces.
Several attempts have been made in the past few years to envision a different model, one that takes community participation into account and works within the framework of existing structures. In 2014, the Urban Development Research Institute (UDRI) organised Reinventing Dharavi, an international competition to generate viable alternative solutions for the area’s redevelopment, while trying to retain its inherent qualities. The entries, which were published recently, came in from 20 teams comprising 140 participants from 21 countries.
Speaking at the event to introduce the competition and its genesis, civil engineer Shirish Patel, founder, Shirish Patel & Associates, said urban planning included people concerned with the use value of land, and those exclusively concerned with the exchange value. For Dharavi’s residents, he explained, the places where they live and work has use value, but if one were to clear the structures, the land, located centrally, would have huge exchange value.
According to the government’s plan, Mr. Patel said, residents and occupants should be moved into 43% of the land they currently occupy, freeing up 57% for other development. They are promised free housing in pucca flats with maintenance costs taken care of, which is being projected as a win-win situation for everybody involved. “What no one is looking at is the future use value. Dharavi already has an extremely high population density, and putting people in such a small space would see an intensity of crowding not seen elsewhere in the world. It’s better, to begin by recognising that Dharavi is already a vibrant community, and look for ways to improve residents’ lives by providing better infrastructure.”
The competition’s winning entry by Plural, a team led by six professionals from various fields, centred around a concept that originated in the US about 40 years ago: a community land trust (CLT), Mr Patel said. A CLT is an entity that holds and owns land with the objective of providing affordable housing, on the condition that they never part with ownership. New residents are chosen by a transparent process; they will take on the cost of construction but will never be entitled to gain from appreciation in land value. The exchange value of the land is thus permanently taken off the market, he explained.
Competition jury member Cyrus Guzder, chairman and nanaging director, AFL Pvt. Ltd. and member, Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee said a wide spectrum of ideas had been submitted that focused on details like revising the settlement’s layout and building typology. Some even focused on pollution and waste management. However, he said, only a few entries proposed a policy framework that would allow this reimagination of Dharavi to become reality. “The single most critical element we were looking for as a jury was a governance mechanism, one that was not top-down or free-for-all bottom-up, and would be significantly different from schemes like the SRA.”
Mr. Guzder said the winning entry and the next best developed a CLT model tailored for the Dharavi experiment, where residents could work out how they want to rebuild their own settlement. Delinking the value of land from the construction on it, he said, is key, and would encourage residents to invest in legacy. It would also prevent speculative buying or selling. The CLT concept could potentially be considered for the redevelopment of informal settlements across the country, he added.
