Building construction has begun on structures intended to house Dharavi people who are determined to be eligible for free housing within the slum cluster on the six acres of Matunga railway land granted to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Private Limited (DRPPL). According to sources, the railway staff quarters on the land are presently being dismantled to create room for 20–25 story structures with five levels of underground parking. According to the sources, a study of some 40,000 tenements in the slum cluster has already been conducted to determine whether residents qualify for free housing.
The DRPPL, lead by Adani Realty, is redeveloping Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in Asia. In November 2022, the company was awarded the contract to reconstruct the cluster of slums situated on 240 hectares of prime land in the city centre. The project proposal states that residents who live on the ground level and whose tenements were built before January 1, 2000 will be allocated tenements within Dharavi, while residents who are not eligible will be housed somewhere else. Currently, the state government is surveying residents of Dharavi’s three lakh tenements door-to-door to find out who among them would be eligible for free housing.
According to a government official who is familiar with DRPPL’s operations, “We are currently conducting soil testing work at the plot.” Buildings in the Matunga-Mahim area are subject to a height restriction due to its proximity to the airport. The official stated, “Therefore, the new buildings would be, at most, 20–25 stories tall with uniformly sized apartments measuring 350 square feet.” The structures will have multipurpose rooms, gardens, pathways, outdoor gyms, playhouses, indoor game rooms, and badminton and volleyball courts. Additionally, there will be five levels of basement parking, with space for at least 100 cars on each level.
Source: Hindustan Times
