Maharashtra CM to look into Dharavi residents` demand for bigger houses

Around 51,000 families living in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, can now hope to get 400 sq ft house each instead of 269 sq ft as promised earlier by the government under the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).

Delegation of Dharavi residents led by Shiv Sena’s working president Uddhav Thackeray met Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today and gave him a memorandum of demands, including that of 400 sq ft houses for slum dwellers.

The chief minister assured the delegation that the government was in favour of providing larger houses to slum dwellers and the administration will be asked to carry out a new feasibility survey.

He also accepted the demand of residents to form an all-party committee to oversee the development of project, and asked housing department officials to form such a committee.

The government is trying to accommodate 4,500-odd industrial units under the DRP scheme, said Deshmukh, adding he was trying to ensure that very few industries are relocated.

The delegation also demanded that no project should be cleared unless at least 70 per cent of slum dwellers agree to it.

The Rs 9,000-crore Dharavi project is one of the high points of the Democratic Front government’s ambitious Rs 1.60 lakh crore Mumbai makeover initiatives.

The state government wants to redevelop the Asia’s largest slum, which is spread over more than 500 acres of land right in the heart of Mumbai, by dividing it into five sectors.