By Varun Singh
Devendra Fadnavis when came back to power with Eknath Shinde he started work on Dharavi Redevelopment. Finally on Wednesday the government led by Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis, on Wednesday decided that fresh global tenders will be floated for Dharavi’s redevelopment.
The cabinet announced that tenders for the redevelopment of Asia’s biggest slum Dharavi will be floated. This will be the fourth time that Dharavi will see a Redevelopment tender being floated.
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in August had held a meeting in this regard at the Mantralaya. He even met the Mumbai Metropolitan Commissioner SVR Srinivas who also is the chief officer of Dharavi Redevelopment Project.
So when is the tender being floated and who better than SVR Srinivas, CEO, Dharavi Redevelopment Project to answer this question. According to Srinivas, the global tender will be floated soon, a senior official said that within three week from now, the global tenders will be floated in most likelihood. The tenders can be floated by mid-October before Diwali.
According to Srinivas, the tender will have almost 95% same contents as the earlier one and it shall be a global tender.
The government had said that it will give a few concessions in the forthcoming tender.
Even the railway land issue has been resolved, and it will be part of the tender.
Dharavi Redevelopment has been in process for a pretty long time. For more than a decade, the residents of one of the biggest slums in the World 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 cancelling 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 the 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: Devendra Fadnavis Puts Dharavi Redevelopment back on track
