Asia's largest settlement Dharavi will change: Adani Group won the bid for redevelopment

Adani Group will redevelop Asia's largest slum Dharavi in ​​Mumbai. Adani Group has bagged the project by making the highest bid of Rs 5,069 crore. The second highest bidder was DLF Group, which bid Rs 2,025 crore, while Naman Group's bid was rejected. Eight global companies had shown interest in this tender, but in reality, only three companies submitted tenders.
The Dharavi redevelopment project has been stuck for almost two decades. Dharavi is considered one of the largest settlements in the world. It is located at a location in Mumbai which is real estate gold. It is located in the heart of Mumbai, close to the Bandra-Kurla Complex. Bandra-Kurla is considered to be the richest business district in India. Amidst the complexities of land acquisition and rehabilitation, its redevelopment will involve a massive investment of funds.
The Dharavi Redevelopment Project is worth Rs 20,000 crore. The Maharashtra government aims to complete the project in the next 17 years and complete rehabilitation in the next seven years. Under this project, those who have been living in Dharavi before January 1, 2000, will be given a pucca house free of cost. Whereas, those who settled here between 2000 and 2011 will have to pay the price.
The area gained immense popularity after the release of the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' in the year 2008. This film had won many awards. This area was settled by the British in 1882. It was established with the aim of providing affordable accommodation to labourers. Gradually people started increasing here and slums were formed. The land here is government, but people have made slums.
Leather goods and decorative pottery are manufactured in the slum spread over 2.8 sq km. The goods manufactured here are sold in the country and abroad. This provides employment to more than one lakh people. The state government wants to convert this entire area into a cluster of skyscrapers with better urban infrastructure. There are 60 thousand families and about 12 thousand commercial complexes in Dharavi. A total of about 1 million people live here.
In 1999, the BJP-Shiv Sena government first proposed the redevelopment of Dharavi. Subsequently, in 2003-04 the Government of Maharashtra decided to redevelop Dharavi as an Integrated Planned Township and for this, an action plan was approved and tenders floated. However, in 2011 the government cancelled all tenders and prepared a master plan.
In 2018, the BJP-Shiv Sena government formed a special-purpose vehicle for Dharavi and notified it for the redevelopment project. Later global tenders were invited. In January 2019, Dubai-based infrastructure firm Sick link Technologies Corporation won the bid beating the Adani Group, but the tender was not awarded following the decision to include railway land in the redevelopment project.
By 2020, the Maharashtra government had changed, and in October of that year, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government (MVA) cancelled the tender and said new tenders would be called soon. The MVA government had alleged that one of the reasons for cancelling the tender was the delay by the Center in transferring the crucial railway land for the project.
After another change of government and Eknath Shinde taking over as Chief Minister, fresh tenders were invited in which Adani Group won the tender. In the last 15 years, the Maharashtra government has made at least four attempts at redevelopment, which have so far been successful.