By Varun Singh
With the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government at the helm of the state affairs Dharavi Redevelopment is back on track.
The deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis already held a meeting on Tuesday in this regards at the Mantralaya. He met the Mumbai Metropolitan Commissioner SVR Srinivas who also is the chief officer of Dharavi Redevelopment. The Commissioner confirmed about the same meeting and said the meeting was in regards to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).
According to sources the government especially Devendra Fadnavis is serious about putting Dharavi redevelopment on a fast track.
Fadnavis post the meeting, tweeted, “Reviewed Dharavi Redevelopment project in Mantralaya, Mumbai this afternoon and will follow up with Government of India to get railway land required for this project.”
Sources claim that once the issue of railway land is resolved, DRP will commence work on floating of tender.
Dharavi Redevelopment has been in process for a pretty long time. For more than a decade, the residents of World’s one of the biggest slums have been awaiting that their future shall change.
While not much has happened on ground, the government has already spent crores on the process of Dharavi Redevelopment.
Uddhav Thackeray led MVA government’s cabinet in 2020 decided to cancel the tender for Dharavi Redevelopment that was floated by Devendra Fadnavis led government in 2018. Post which the MVA had even claimed that it shall float fresh tenders, but nothing much moved in that direction.
The tender floated by Devendra Fadnavis government in 2019 was the third time, the tenders were floated for Dharavi Redevelopment. The first two times the tender was floated when Congress-NCP were in power.
In August 2020, the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) met to take a call on the Dharavi Redevelopment tender. The committee suggested to cancel the tender, and they proposed the same to the state government which finally took a call on it.
The CoS had relied its suggestion on the advice by the Advocate General (AG), who advised for fresh tenders. After floating the tender and receiving bids, the state government acquired 46 acres of land for Rs 800 crore from the Railway. Post acquiring this land and making it a part of the Redevelopment Project, the advice from the AG was sought, who advised for fresh tenders.
Global tenders were floated in November 2018, for Dharavi Redeveloper Project.
Dharavi is spread over 240 hectare of land and is centrally located. It is close to Bandra Kurla Complex, the financial hub of Mumbai.
In January 2019, Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) had received two tenders of which Seclink group was the frontrunner for the redevelopment of Dharavi which, according to reports had quoted Rs 7,200 crore. The total project cost was estimated to be above Rs 27,000 crore.
Also Read: Dharavi Redevelopment Hasn’t Moved Much, But These Many Crore Already Spent
