Maharashtra state government, which is responsible for the city, has called for plans to redevelop the 144-hectare Dharavi slum, a former fishing village, by re-housing 600,000 people and building a new business district. The government plans to divide the site into five parcels
and auction them to developers, who would then be required to demolish a total of 57,000 slum structures and re-house the inhabitants and their businesses on the same site, for free. In return, the developers would get 1.3 square metres of commercial space for every square metre of accommodation created for the slum dwellers.

The plans have received opposition from some quarters, with the president of the National Slum Dwellers Association branding it a land grab taking place without community consultation.

Nationwide, India is facing a slum crisis as more people flock to the cities in search of work. The latest census data reveal that the number of people inhabiting India’s slums more than doubled between 1981 and 2001, rising from 27.9 million to 61.8 million.

August 2007