With the change in the government in the state, one of the most important projects, Dharavi Redevelopment is once again back on track.
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday held a meeting on Tuesday in this regard at the Mantralaya. He even met the Mumbai Metropolitan Commissioner SVR Srinivas who is also the Chief Officer of Dharavi Redevelopment Project. The Commissioner confirmed the meeting and said the meeting was in regards to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project.
According to sources, the government, especially Devendra Fadnavis, is serious about putting Dharavi redevelopment on fast track.
Fadnavis, after the meeting, tweeted, “Reviewed Dharavi Redevelopment project in Mantralaya, Mumbai this afternoon and will follow up with the Government of India to get railway land required for this project.”
According to sources, once the railway land is acquired the government will start work on floating the tender.
Dharavi Redevelopment has been in process for a long time. For more than a decade, the residents of one of the biggest slums in the World have been waiting for their change of fortunes.
While not much has happened on the ground, the government has already spent crores on the process of Dharavi Redevelopment.
Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government’s cabinet decided in 2020 to cancel the tender for Dharavi Redevelopment that was floated by Devendra Fadnavis-led government in 2018. Post which the MVA had even claimed that it shall float fresh tenders, but nothing much moved in that direction.
The tender floated by Devendra Fadnavis’s government in 2019 was the third time the tenders were floated for Dharavi Redevelopment. The first two times the tender was floated when Congress-NCP were in power.
In August 2020, the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) met to take a call on the Dharavi Redevelopment tender. The committee suggested cancelling the tender, and they proposed the same to the state government which finally took a call on it.
The CoS had relied its suggestion on the advice of the Advocate General (AG), who advised fresh tenders. After floating the tender and receiving bids, the state government acquired 46 acres of land for Rs 800 crore from the Railway. Post acquiring this land and making it a part of the Redevelopment Project, based on the AG’s recommendation, fresh tenders were issued.
Global tenders were floated in November 2018, for the Dharavi Redeveloper Project.
Dharavi is spread over 240 hectares of land and is centrally located in Mumbai. It is close to Bandra Kurla Complex, the financial hub of Mumbai.
In January 2019, Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) received two tenders of which Seclink group was the frontrunner for the redevelopment of Dharavi which, according to reports, had quoted Rs 7,200 crore. The total project cost was estimated to be above Rs 27,000 crore.
