Asia’s most notorious slums went up for sale yesterday in a US$2.3 billion project

One of Asia’s most notorious slums went up for sale yesterday in a US$2.3 billion project to raze thousands of ramshackle homes and create one of the world’s hottest building sites.

The filthy and cramped 535 acre Dharavi slum stands on prime building land in Mumbai, parts of which have some of the world’s most expensive real estate, and has long been an embarrassment to promoting India’s economic capital as a global financial centre.

Newspaper advertisements were published in 20 countries yesterday offering ‘the opportunity of the millennium’ for five major developers to take part in the long-delayed and controversial project in one of Asia’s largest slums.

Some 57,000 families - about 300,000 people - will be moved into free but tiny one-bedroom homes in the area and swathes of land will be cleared for business and high-rise flats bounding some of the city’s wealthiest parts.

‘Throughout the world, slum dwellers are regarded as pests,’ said architect Mukesh Mehta, who has championed the project for a decade.

‘With this, the government of Maharashtra (the state that includes Mumbai) regards them as important human resources and assets. You can expect a very beautiful suburb that hopefully other people from around the world will want to emulate.’

The project has been fiercely condemned by the slum dwellers, who have created a vibrant self-sufficient economy of potteries, tanneries and other industries among the warren of narrow lanes.

At one side of the slum, women stuffed mattresses and vans ferried goods to market while potters worked on open roofs, creating clay figures for sale.

Environmental groups said such industries at Dharavi provide an object lesson in recycling.

But city planners said the tanneries and workshops pollute Mumbai’s already filthy waterways and the project includes environmentally-friendly workshops.

Still, businessmen were furious at the ‘imposed’ scheme and said some will be squeezed from areas covering several thousand sq ft of floor space into flats of just 225 sq ft.

Only those registered on voter rolls in 1995 will be eligible for free homes.

Groups representing slum dwellers claimed that about 300,000 people will be left with nowhere to go - driving them into new slums.

They also pointed to the woeful record of the authorities in previous schemes to rehouse slum dwellers in the city.

‘All the concessions have been for the developers and builders, none at all for the people,’ said A Jockin, president of Slum Dwellers International.

‘They are not concerned with people development. Now, the struggle will start. People will be on the streets.’

New schools, colleges, health clinics, a sports complex and a golf driving range are all slated to be part of the redevelopment due for completion within seven years, according to Mr Mehta.

For every square foot provided for rehabilitation, builders will be entitled to 1.33 sq ft for sale, making it a lucrative opportunity in the peninsula city where space is scarce.

‘It’s been mind-boggling. Everyone and their cousin want to participate in this scheme,’ Mr Mehta said.

Dharavi’s notoriety as one of Asia’s largest slums has made it an unlikely destination for Bollywood movie makers, Britain’s Prince Charles, foreign politicians and slum tourists seeking out the problems of modern India. Dharavi has also symbolised the political failure to adequately house a population swollen by migrants trying to make a living in India’s most prosperous city.

More than half of Mumbai’s nearly 18 million population, by official count, live in slums, according to Mr Mehta.

The slum, once a marsh and rubbish tip, has stood in its current form for about 60 years with the third generation of families running businesses from workshops and yards.

Compared with many of the city’s flimsy wood and tarpaulin slums built alongside roads and the airport, its long-term status has seen many permanent concrete structures built and amenities installed.

But critics said pollution, waste and disease are major hazards in the unsanitary conditions while the ‘informal’ system operating the slum is controlled by gangs.

Asia accounts for some 60 per cent of the total global slum population of 924 million in 2001, according to a UN report.

Source: The Business Times, 31 May 2007