In March last year, Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray sent out a threat to the Congress at a rally in Dharavi: he insisted that the Shiv Sena will not allow laying of a single brick in Dharavi if the residents did not get 400 sq. ft home instead of the proposed225 sq. ft. He also gave the state government a deadline of eight days to draft a new blue print for the project. There still seems to be no new draft.

As a result, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in a closed-door meeting asked for feasibility studies and ascertain if there is any way to meet the 400 sq. ft demand.

The bidders:

As many as 47 top developers,including five foreign real estate companies, have so far shown interest in redeveloping around 360 acres of Dharavi The five international companies that have picked up the Expression of Interest forms (EoI)are US-based Tishman Speyer, Emaar and ETA Properties from Dubai,Hutchison Whampoa from Hong Kong and Sobha from Kuwait.

The major Indian players include K Raheja, Hiranandani, Unity Infrastructure, Kanakia, IndiaBulls, DLF, Lodha, Dewan Housing, Mahindra Gesco, Ravi Developers, Kumar Builders, Reliance Energy Runwal, Mayfair, Tata Housing, Litolier, Videocon, Akruti Nirman, Dynamix, Neptune, Reliance Land Development, Unitech, Oberoi Construction, Kalpataru, Lok Housing, Mantri, Nirmal Lifestyle,B G Shirke, Lokhandwala and Kohinoor.

Leading international developers from 40 cities across the world including the US-based Hynes, Far East-based Capitaland, Ascendas, Ayala, the UAE-based Emaar, Nakheel andLimitless have started lobbying strongly with local developers such as Hiranandani Constructions, Rahejas, Kalpataru, Lokhandwala Infrastructure, Akruti Nirman to form joint ventures for bidding jointly. By July 15, 2007,international developers will submit their JV patterns to SRA, followed by the final bidding process by July-end 2007.

The proposed Dharavi re-development project, which was originally conceived in 2004 was expected to commence construction in 2007 after selection of the developer / builder and is expected to be completed by 2014. What happened to the bidding process? Any idea who was selected or shortlisted?

I am told that, T.Chandrashekar, who spearheaded the project as the executive officer of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), is expected to resign after mounting frustration due to political interference.

Those for and against:

While the Congress and the Nationalistic Congress Party are in favour of the proposed redevelopment project, the same is opposed by the Shiv Sena and the BJP who lost power in the state during 2004. Activists and NGOs such as the National Slum Dwellers Federation and the Bombay Environmental Action Group also oppose the proposed project. Is it politics as usual at the expense of the poor slum dwellers of Dharavi?

Those affected:

There are many like Hiralal Rathore, who like his father and grandfather before him, lives and works as a potter in India’s biggest slum in a potters’ colony that was granted space in Dharavi by British colonialists. Rathore is one of about 600,000 residents of a century-old warren of shacks, clan businesses and open sewers sprawled over marshland the size of Monaco. He says, “We potters live off the earth, we need land for its soil,” “What sort of development is this when we are about to lose our livelihood?”

For Waljibhai Jethwa, one of the 10,000 potters who inhabit the 2.5-acre Kumbharwada, space is a big issue."We need space to keep the mud, make the pots and then bake and dry them." Govindbhai Chitroda, of the Potters Cooperative, says, "We fear if the area gets developed, we may not get work."

In Indira Gandhi Nagar and Shiv Shakti Nagar, rows of papads, briskly rolled out by women, dry on large circular inverted cane baskets, over rooftops and inside houses. There are over15,000 families in Dharavi who earn their livelihoods from papads, according to Shashikant Kawle, a local political party worker. "We don't want to stay in a building. Where will we dry our papads? They are saying take them to the terrace. How do you expect us to cart piles of papads up and down," asks Bhagobai Sherkare, who has been rolling papads for 22 years.

The real world is where people like 95-year-old Natalbai Killekar live. Sitting in her 5,000 sq ft single-storey house in Dharavi's Koliwada, she recalls, "Earlier the sea used to come up close and our boats used to dock here." The new Dharavi project proposes to re-develop the area and allot people flats measuring 225 sqft each. "How can we leave our old houses and resettle in these small flats," asks Ramkrishna Keni, former Shiv Sena corporator and a local leader. "The Government should have at least informed us about the project. I don't want to oppose the project but we cannot be evicted from our ancestral lands," he said.

The Government has not yet decided how to deal with private land in Dharavi. About 20 per cent of the land or 43 hectares, is privately-owned, much of it by the Kolis or the fishing community, the original settlers of the islands of Mumbai. Teresa Killekar, vice-president, of the Koli Mahila Sangharsh Samiti, affiliated to the Shiv Sena, asks, "Why should we allow our land to be developed by someone else,we can sell it to the builder ourselves. Four generations have lived here — so why we should leave?"

The opposition:

On June 18, 2007, thousands took to the streets, and the various groups and political parties decided to continue their agitation until the government agreed to proper rehabilitation of those who run small-scale industries, increasing house size from 225 to 400sqft and conducting a realistic survey of people who are entitled to houses.

Black flags of protest were flying in Dharavi’s trash-strewn alleyways. While authorities say the makeover will rehabilitate the communities, many locals doubt they will be better off.

Magsaysay award winner Arputham Jockin, who is president of the National Slum Dwellers Federation(NSDF), says, "The most important thing about Dharavi is that it's built by the people, and the community has always been involved. Mukesh Mehta is not rebuilding Dharavi, he is inventing Shanghai in Dharavi. This is bottom-up planning, contrary to all international norms." He adds, "Mr. Mehta is only an architect — he has to make a design based on people's needs and not the other way round. The design has to be for the real world."

Academics, artists,researchers and professionals from across the globe have written to the Prime Minister, expressing their “profound sense of disquiet” over the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP). The letter said that in drawing up the DRP, the Government had not followed the legal procedure of publishing a plan and inviting objections and suggestions.

There was no survey of the population, households, structures, ownership and topography and hence there was no data or basis for a plan that would disrupt the lives of several hundred thousands.

There were no studies projecting the increased population of Dharavi after redevelopment and no planning standards were mentioned. The letter pointed out that the residents had virtually no information about the DRP. It was “profoundly undemocratic” to do away with the requirement that at least 70 per cent of the people consent to any slum redevelopment scheme.The extent of increased floor space index would lead to unsupportable densities of population.

There was no mention of any strategy for land use, traffic, urban form, infrastructure, housing typologies or environment. Nor was there a plan to link the proposed infrastructure with the city’s infrastructure. For all the massive cost of the project, there was no Environmental Assessment Report.

Expressing the fear that if the DRP was implemented, the livelihoods of people would be destroyed without any alternative offered, the letter urged Dr. Singh and Mr. Deshmukh to look at the project afresh and seek the approval of the community at large before finalising any proposal.

Won’t trying to appease everyone be "the last straw that breaks the camel's back”? Any new developments anyone?