The Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), regarded as one of the largest urban renewal programmes in the world, represents one of the most demanding real estate execution challenges in India, according to a report by HSBC Global Investment Research.
In its report, “One of the world’s largest urban regeneration projects,” HSBC highlighted the enormous scale of the initiative, which seeks to rehabilitate more than one million residents and develop over 125,000 housing units. The report described the undertaking as “a massive execution challenge,” noting that the Adani Group plans to complete the rehabilitation component “over the next seven to eight years” while simultaneously carrying out extensive infrastructure and environmental improvement works.
Spread across nearly 600 acres in central Mumbai, Dharavi is home to over a million people and is widely recognised as Asia’s largest slum. HSBC noted that the project includes a rehabilitation area of 95 million square feet. “The 95msf of rehabilitation involves more than 1 million slum dwellers for whom over 125K units are planned to be constructed,” the report said.
The rehabilitation exercise is expected to be distributed across multiple locations within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). “Half of these are planned in the current area of Dharavi while the rest is spread across six areas in the MMR region,” it added.
HSBC also outlined key milestones set for the project. “The first building on the land parcel of Indian Railways” is scheduled to be handed over in December 2026, while construction of approximately “30K units” is expected to be underway in FY27.
Beyond housing, the project includes several civic and environmental initiatives. “The company also plans to provide 10 years of O&M for the rehabilitated units, clean up the Mithi river and Deonar dumping ground, develop a 6km long mangrove creek and a Marine Drive style promenade along the Mithi river, amongst other infrastructure upgrades,” the report said.
Approved in 2022 as a public-private partnership between the Maharashtra government and the Adani Group, the redevelopment spans around 225 million square feet and aims to transform Dharavi into “an urban transit-oriented hub” through housing, infrastructure and commercial development.
Source: The Economic Times
