Dharavi rehab to benefit hutments

MUMBAI: Even as the Maharashtra government awaits the expression of interest (EoI) documents from realty majors interested in the Dharavi redevelopment project, the largest slum rehabilitation programme in the world has become a political masterstroke for the Congress.

Under pressure from the party which dominates the political landscape in this shanty township, the state government is planning to extend the benefit of rehabilitation to those hutments in Dharavi that have come up between 1995 and 2000.

A senior government official told ET that the Congress-led government was “much inclined” to make this exception to the legal cut-off date of January 1, 1995 for the Dharavi project. A decision as significant as extending the cut-off date for slum regularisation could almost double the number of beneficiaries.

Similarly, cost escalation would also be a natural fallout though the government is not investing much of its money in the project. Realty majors in question would also have to rethink their strategy since an increase in the number of beneficiaries would not just drive up the project cost, but impact its timeline, officials in the know told ET.

“Elected representatives of the Congress, especially those from Dharavi, have demanded that the benefit extended to slum-dwellers affected by mega infrastructure projects be extended to Dharavi also. For the state government, it would be very difficult and politically incorrect not to concede to this demand since the exception has been made to the law in several other cases,” the official said.

The Congress legislator from Dharavi, Varsha Gaikwad, confirmed that the party had taken up the issue of pre-2000 shanties in Dharavi with the state government. “We want the cut-off year of slum regularisation to be extended for Dharavi project also. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has been very sympathetic to the demand and the government has accepted it in principle,” Ms Gaikwad said.

The Congress legislator and her father Eknath Gaikwad, Congress MP from Mumbai North-Central, have been holding a series of public meetings in Dharavi to convince people of the benefits of the redevelopment scheme. At present, the beneficiaries are only those slums that have come up till January 1, 1995, as per a state government law that makes all post-1995 slums illegal.

A survey carried out by the government pegs the number of beneficiaries at 57,000 families which could establish their ownership of hutments in Dharavi before January 1, 1995. “A new survey would have to be conducted to identify hutments that have come up between 1995 and 2000. It will be ordered soon and many more families would get the benefit,” Ms Gaikwad said.

The Congress offers a simple political logic in sharing the benefits with as many Dharavi residents as it can — since 1985 when the slum township spread over 174 hectares started showing a semblance of development, it has largely been a Congress bastion. “Dharavi has always overwhelmingly voted for the Congress. It’s time the government returned the favour now,” Ms Gaikwad explained.

But it’s not only for the Dharavi project that the Congress has taken refuge in vote-bank politics. Pressure from the elected representatives of the Congress and the NCP, the ruling allies in Maharashtra, has forced the government to extend the slum regularisation date for Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP) and Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drain (Brimstowad) Upgradation Project and Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project.

Most recently, the expansion and modernisation programme of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport took a hit from vote-bank politics when the government decided to regularise all pre-200 slums around the airport.