Windfall gains with Dharavi development

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) stands to get windfall gains from the Dharavi redevelopment project in terms of land value, construction and developed area, and tenements for project-affected persons (PAPs).

More than 11,000 tenements for PAPs will be available to the civic body through this project. In addition to this, the BMC will also get a premium of Rs 1,220 crore as land value in this project.

The state government has appointed Dharavi Redevelopment Authority (DRA) for improvement of Dharavi, which is considered the largest and most densely populated slum pocket in Asia. A floor space index (FSI) of four will be used for the project, which aims at providing rehab tenements to 58,343 eligible slum dwellers in the region.

According to civic officials, the Dharavi redevelopment project will be implemented on 147.77 hectare municipal land. As per provisions of Development Control Rules (DCR), the civic body will get Rs 1,220 crore for providing land by means of ready reckoner rate of minimum 25 per cent land value.

“The estimated cost is arrived at as per the lowest bid method. But if the competitive bid method is used, the BMC may get higher returns. The civic body will also get high property tax, water tax and profession tax with the redevelopment project,” said a senior civic official.

With the redevelopment project, the BMC is also likely to get a new construction area of 20.27 hectare, which will see amenities like school, dispensary, social welfare centre, gymnasium, hall, library, market, fire stations etc. In addition to this, 19.29 hectare of developed land featuring garden, ground and parking lots will also be available to the civic body.

The redevelopment project will create around 700,000 tenements. Considering that there are 58,343 slum dwellers in Dharavi, 11,757 additional tenements will be available and can be used as PAP tenements.

For projects like water pipeline protection, road widening and various other schemes, BMC provides alternate accommodation to PAPs. However, the civic body’s attempts to rehabilitate PAPs of various projects in these areas have faced strong resistance from people due to the odd location. With Dharavi being in the heart of the city, we will not face such problems henceforth, said the official.