Written by Dhwani Pandya
MUMBAI (Reuters) – A joint venture led by billionaire Gautam Adani is struggling to secure land to rehabilitate poor residents of one of Asia’s biggest slums in Mumbai, a government official said, posing a fresh challenge to an ambitious reconstruction plan.
The Dharavi slum, about three-quarters the size of New York’s Central Park, was among the areas featured in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning 2008 film “Slumdog Millionaire.” The open sewers and shared toilets in the area, which is near Mumbai’s international airport, contrast with India’s development boom.
After winning a $619 million tender last year, Adani Group plans to transform the 240-hectare (594-acre) slum into a modern urban centre, but has already faced protests from opposition political parties who say it received unfair concessions from the state government in awarding the contract. The group has denied the allegations.
Now there is a new challenge.
Only those who lived in Dharavi before 2000 will get free homes in the redevelopment, and much of the land needed for rehabilitation — at least 580 acres at present — will be used to provide housing for about 700,000 people deemed ineligible.
Adani JV has applied to several state and federal agencies for more land to build homes for these ineligible people, but has not yet received any, said SVR Srinivas, chairman of the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority.
He added that the reason for this is that such government bodies have their own plans for the lands they own and are not willing to give them up.
“In Mumbai, getting land is one of the most difficult things. Financially, we have not got an inch of land,” said Srinivas.
Asked if he was concerned that delays in acquiring land could impact the project’s timeline, he said: “Yes, without land the project cannot be implemented, so this is a very important factor in completing the project on schedule.”
Adani Group, which owns a majority stake in the joint venture with the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The project, which aims to rehouse a million people, is a high-profile and important one for Adani, who last year faced allegations of business mismanagement and stock manipulation in a scathing report by Hindenburg Research, which he has denied.
The project began in March with an eligibility survey, and its backers aim to complete construction in seven years.
Mumbai is one of the most expensive real estate markets in India where property prices are very high and land is scarce.
The Adani Group admitted that rebuilding Dharavi posed “enormous” challenges – although it said it hoped the area would in the future produce “millionaires without the slum prefix”.