Dharavi redevelopment plan: Industrial units to get more space, says Fadnavis

Located in the central part of the country’s financial capital and among the biggest slum clusters in the world, Dharavi is a hub for several small-scale, unorganised industries that manufacture medicines, leather, footwear, clothes etc.

Replying to a calling attention motion in the Assembly, state Home Minister Fadnavis said 59,165 families will be rehabilitated, of which 46,191 are residential and 12,974 non-residential.

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He added that the government will undertake rental housing for the families who are ineligible for rehabilitation.

Fadnavis, who is Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister said that while executing the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan, the area’s economic contribution to Mumbai and Maharashtra has to be kept in mind.

“This is why we have created an industrial and business zone. And the benefit of the industrial and business zone is that it will have common facility centre. They will be given more space than what they have with improved conditions,” he said.

On the issue of goods and services tax (GST), he said taxes will be waived for five years, adding the state government will explore if rehabilitated buildings can be made maintenance-free.

With regards to religious sites, the deputy CM said legal structures will be protected.

Earlier in November emerged as the highest bidder for the 259-hectare Dharavi Redevelopment Project. The group has put in a ₹5,069 crore bid for the redevelopment of one of the largest slum sprawls in the world, outbidding DLF, which had quoted ₹2,025 crore, chief executive officer of the project S V R Srinivas said.

The bid is for the entire ₹20,000-crore project, and the total timeline for the project is seven years to rehabilitate the 6.5 lakh slum dwellers who are spread over 2.5 sq km area right now, he said.

With PTI inputs.