[Sample] Dharavi Redevelopment Project, Mumbai

Redeveloping a City Within a City

Dharavi, occupying 240 ha in the geographic centre of Mumbai, is home to an estimated 600,000–1,000,000 residents and a dense industrial economy — leather goods, pottery, recycling, textiles — with an estimated annual output of ₹5,000 Cr. The redevelopment project, awarded to a private consortium in 2023, proposes to replace the existing built fabric over 17 years with a structured grid of residential towers, commercial blocks, and a 25 ha public park.

The project's defining commitment — and its primary point of civic contestation — is in-situ relocation. All resident households registered before 2000 are entitled to a 350 sq ft pucca apartment within the redeveloped precinct. Commercial tenants are to be accommodated in a dedicated industrial park within the boundary. The phasing strategy relocates residents sector-by-sector, minimising displacement distances.

“Dharavi is not a slum. It is an economy, a community, a culture. The plan's success will be measured not by towers built but by livelihoods retained.”

— Housing Rights Advocate, YUVA

The plan remains contentious: community surveys indicate 45% of residents are not formally registered and fear exclusion from the entitlement programme. Civil society organisations are engaged in an ongoing legal challenge at the Bombay High Court regarding registration cutoff dates and commercial compensation terms.