One of Mumbai’s most valuable redevelopment projects, Dharavi, is in the middle of a bitter political and industrial conflict. The multibillion dollar proposal, which pits Aaditya Thackeray’s Yuva Sena against Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, is at the centre of the dispute. The Adani Group is caught in the middle. The idea is to transform Asia’s largest slum.
President of the Yuva Sena Aaditya Thackeray expressed worries about the ongoing Dharavi rehabilitation project and criticised the way the Maharashtra government is managing it. Thackeray vented his annoyance at the reversal of some significant decisions made when his party was in office.
He made it clear that the businessman Gautam Adani is not the problem; rather, he was against the industrial method being used, blaming the government of giving private developers enormous portions of Mumbai without providing sufficient public benefit. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra responded by justifying the government’s actions, claiming that the Adani group was chosen as the winning bidder for the Dharavi rehabilitation project. In addition, Fadnavis promised that if Adani disregarded state orders, the government will reclaim the contract.
Speaking at the India Today Mumbai conference, Fadnavis denied accusations made by the opposition and asserted that his government had reduced the Transferable Development Rights (TDR) granted to the Adani group—a move that had purportedly gone unchecked by the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government. He said that by doing this, the developers would have been able to accumulate rights and sell them to other Mumbai real estate companies for hefty profits.
Source: Business Today
