5.1 Slum Redevelopment Projects in Dharavi

Table 1 Slum Redevelopment Projects in Dharavi

S. No Project Year Salient Features

1 Slum Improvement Project 1972 Provision of essential amenities to the slum, like water, electricity, latrines and sewage disposal.

2 Slum Improvement Project

(continued)

3

Slum Upgradation Project and PMGP (Prime minister's grant project)

1976 The main motive of this was to provide the people living in a slum with "legitimate status". In order to do this, the committee issued photo identities.

1985 Renting out the land of slum areas to the corporate groups at a very affordable price, providing loans for improving houses and the environment.

4 Slum Rehabilitation

Scheme

1995 Monitoring of the activities was regulated, development rights were transferred in order to attract private developers. The committee was more structured as compared to how they previously worked.

5 Dharavi Redevelopment

Project

2004 Providing Dharavi's residents with new houses to be freed from slum areas and further selling the land for private developments.

1.Slum Improvement Project

Maharashtra Slum Area Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment Act declared Dharavi as a slum in 1971. In 1972, SIP was the first development plan for Dharavi. Under this programme, all the basic services water, electricity, latrines and sewage disposal were proposed to the slum area. However, the plan could not be successful because there was no comprehensive census on the slums of Mumbai (Chatterji, 2005). Most of the sewer and water lines were laid down around the SionMahim-Link (90- and 60-feet connecting roads in Dharavi) till 1974. Also, a transit camp was proposed and executed for the affecting slum dwellers due to the removal of their houses for the newly proposed roads (Yumpu.com, 2010).

In 1976, the government attempted to provide legal status to the slum dwellers. The government aims to provide basic amenities while taking a rent of INR 20 per month with valid photo identities. However, the scheme ended by 1991 due to administrative difficulties in completing records of the number of residents and houses. (Sandhu, 2005).

2.Slum up-gradation project

In the year 1985, the World Bank provided funds for the Slum Up-gradation Programme (SUP). The program was initiated for improving the housing facilities in slum areas; thus, at very affordable rates, the lands of the slum area were given to corporative groups. However, the program set out a distinction between the house to be upgraded and the house to be rebuilt (Redeveloping Dharavi: The case of slum redevelopment in Mumbai, n.d.). Here, the emphasis was given more on reconstructing the building with the help of plaster and bricks instead of tin, mat and plastics sheets as rebuilding the house with the help of reinforced concrete (RCC) wasn't possible. Along with this, the focus was put on the water and electricity supply because it is considered the basic needs of a person for a living (Chatterji, 2005).

3.Prime minister's grant project

The Prime Minister's Grant Project was initiated in 1985 and is considered the most significant milestone. The program aimed for slum redevelopment and plan to build new structures at the same place as before. When Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India, a grant of around Rs 1 billion was sanctioned, from which Rs 300 million was alone reserved for the development of Dharavi. The Prime Minister's Grant Project was considered to be the first-ever project that focusses on the redevelopment of slums in a more systematic manner (Chatterji, 2005). Thus, to do this, Charles Correa was assigned as the head of the committee in 1986. The main aim of this committee is to look after the projects related to the redevelopment of the Dharavi slum. During 1986, as the committee did not have any proper structure or plan regarding how Dharavi looks like, the committee was ordered to reconsider the matter and observe an ariel survey of the area. After having the layouts, the committee identified that there are some areas where the boundaries between the settlements and tenement are blurred. Further, the population estimated during the survey turned out to be incorrect as the population evaluated in the later survey showed that the population was relatively less. Therefore, based on the collected information, the Prime Minister's Grant Project initiated a tentative redevelopment plan. According to the proposed plan, the beneficiary was to be provided with houses that will have four to five floors within the area of 165 to 430 feet. The whole motive of this project was to improve the living standards of the people living in Dharavi. As a result, when the survey was conducted, it was found that 55000 families were the beneficiaries, and amongst them, approximately 35000 were provided with accommodation whereas the other 20000 families were relocated to other parts of the cities (Sandhu, 2005).

Slum rehabilitation scheme

In Maharashtra, the problems related to slums were increasing day by day. Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority regulated a program named Slum Rehabilitation Authority to look after this issue. The program was initiated in the year 1995 in order to overcome the problems faced by the previously implemented scheme, i.e., Slum Rehabilitation Scheme (SRS). According to the electoral vote conducted in 1995, every slum dweller was eligible for availing of the benefits related to the scheme. Furthermore, another scheme was introduced for attracting private dwellers, i.e., 37