Dharavi project chief says Mumbai salt pan lands safe for development

About 256 acres of salt pan land in Mumbai allocated for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project are safe for development, according to SVR Srinivas, chief executive officer of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).

 

The proposed use of salt pan lands had raised environmental concerns. However, Srinivas stated that the salt pan lands are on the western side of the Eastern Expressway, away from the sea for nearly a decade, and are completely safe for development.

 

Earlier, the government of Maharashtra (GoM) allocated the salt pan land parcels across Mulund, Kanjurmarg and Bhandup to rehouse ineligible Dharavi residents.

 

Under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) guidelines, only ground-floor tenements are typically considered eligible for free housing. As per the project’s tender document, individuals with ground-floor residential structures built on or before January 1, 2000, will get homes of 350 square feet (sq ft) within Dharavi only, which is 17 per cent more than any other SRA project in Mumbai.

 

“Years ago, these parcels were officially decommissioned by the Salt Commissioner of India. No salt manufacturing has been happening there for nearly a decade now. The seawater never even reached these areas after the construction of the Eastern Expressway. There is no issue with the construction of affordable housing there, and unless we do not take such judicious steps today, the city could crumble under the population burden in the coming years,” Srinivas added.

 

He clarified that these lands are no longer flood buffers and do not fall under Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) regulations. “The actual creek and wetlands, which attract migratory birds like flamingos, lie east of the expressway. The west side, where the DRP lands are located, has no such ecological sensitivity or CRZ restrictions.”

 

The officer informed that the project work will begin only after obtaining all the necessary environmental approvals and ensuring full compliance with statutory norms.

 

Salt pan lands have been earmarked for affordable housing under the Development Plan (DP) 2034, approved in 2018 by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). Back in 2007, the state government had also proposed using over 2,000 hectares for resettling project-affected people.

 

Mumbai’s Development Plan 2014–34 estimated a need for 10 lakh affordable homes by 2021, including 3.5 lakh for the economically weaker sections.

 

The central government’s excise and customs department is constructing an office-cum-staff quarters complex on 55 acres of salt pan land in Wadala. In addition, 15 acres of such land in Kanjur have been allocated for the car shed of Metro Line 6, which runs between Vikhroli and Swami Samarth Nagar (Lokhandwala Complex).

 

Commenting on concerns raised over the ownership of salt pan lands allotted for the Dharavi project, Srinivas said, “The government of India has allotted this land to the GoM, which is being handed over to DRP/SRA – GoM for resettling ineligible Dharavikars. So, the title of the land always remains with GoM. In the entire Dharavi project, all allotted lands (outside Dharavi) are being transferred by the land-owning authorities to DRP/SRA – GoM. Only the premium for the lands is being paid by Navbharat Mega Developers Private Limited (NMDPL). All land parcels will be with the state government always.”

 

NMDPL is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed to execute the redevelopment project. Adani Group has an 80 per cent stake in it, while the remaining 20 per cent stake belongs to the state government.

 

Last month, the project entered the last phase of the survey, with 63,000 household tenements assessed and counting.

 

According to the latest survey figures, lane recce has been completed for more than 95,000 tenements, more than 89,000 tenements have been numbered, and door-to-door surveys have been completed for more than 63,000 tenements.

 

The survey is being conducted to determine the eligibility of the residents and businesses of Dharavi for rehabilitation, considering the redevelopment of the area.

 

On March 7, the Supreme Court sought a response from the Maharashtra government and Adani Properties on a plea challenging the award of the project.

 

The plea, filed by UAE-based SecLink Technologies, challenged the state government’s decision to cancel SecLink’s 2019 bid for the redevelopment of Dharavi slums and award the tender to Adani in 2022.

 

However, the apex court refused to halt the ongoing work at the project site after the Adani Group said that the construction had already started and over 2,000 workers were involved in it. They also told the court that they had invested funds, procured construction equipment worth crores of rupees, and started the demolition of railway quarters on the site.