In a city where space is at a premium, two vast tracts of land — the 500-acre Dharavi slums and the 225-acre Mahalaxmi Racecourse — have become the battlegrounds for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed Eknath Shinde government (the Mahayuti) and the Opposition alliance, led by Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT).
The government’s ambitious vision to metamorphose Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, into a world-class city is facing stiff resistance with Thackeray alleging that the project has been handed to the Adani group under terms favourable to it. “We want to give 500 square feet houses to all Dharavi residents and scrap the government resolution that mandates other Mumbai builders to buy transfer of development rights (TDR) from Adani that would be generated from Dharavi redevelopment,” says Thackeray, 63, at a public meeting. Despite Dharavi being located in the Mumbai North Central constituency and Mahalaxmi Racecourse in South Mumbai, the issues have caught the attention of all parties and their candidates.
Source – Business Standard
