BJP win in Maharashtra to bolster Adani's $3 bn Dharavi slum project

The landslide victory for ruling BJP-led Mahayuti in Maharashtra will booster billionaire Gautam Adani-led group's $3-billion project to redevelop Mumbai slum of Dharavi into a "world-class" district.

Opposition Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) had pledged to reclaim all land given to the Adani group for redeveloping Asia's largest slum and promised to scrap the project altogether, if voted to power.

For Adani, who is facing bribery charges in a US court, the scrapping of his pet Dharavi project would have been a big setback.

With election results showing the BJP and its allies Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party factions led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, winning more than three-fourths of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly, those anxieties have now been set to rest.

Adani plans to turn 620 acres of prime land, about three quarters of the size of New York's Central Park, into a glitzy urban hub. About seven lakh living in rickety shanties with open sewers and shared toilets in the densely populated slums located close to Mumbai's international airport, are to be given flats of up to 350 sq ft free of cost.

The redevelopment had become a political hot potato with the opposition alleging that that group received undue favours from the state government in awarding the contract. The group has denied benefiting from the government's favouritism.

Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had repeatedly raised the award of Dharavi redevelopment, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party BJP of enriching cronies such as Adani.

Project supporters in the ruling dispensation say the project holds out promise to make it a global model for slum redevelopment.

While an estimated 1 million (10 lakh) reside in Dharavi, about 700,000 are thought to be eligible because of the resident definition of ones having proof of living in the area prior to January 1, 2000.

The rest will get homes in other parts of the city, a proposal some locals opposed as they want no resident or business owner to be uprooted.

Adani had in 2022 won a contract to remake the slum, which sits on prime real estate in the overcrowded financial capital, in seven years.

Weeks before the poll, the Maharashtra government had approved the acquisition of 256 acres of salt-pan land for the Dharavi redevelopment. The salt-pan land is to be acquired from the central government and leased to the government of Maharashtra, which is redeveloping the 620-acre slum, the largest in Asia.

The Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt, in which the Adani Group holds an 80 per cent stake, along with the state government, is implementing the project.

The land will be used to build low-cost and affordable housing for residents of Dharavi. A survey of existing residents and businesses is being done to determine who would be rehoused in Dharavi or be relocated.

The slums -- key backdrop in Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire -- houses shanties where often eight people are squeezed in a 100-sq ft tenement and ten times that number sharing a toilet. Dharavi is also a massive hub for small-scale businesses ranging from leather goods to pottery and textiles.

The Maharashtra government in 2022 issued a new tender to redevelop Dharavi after an earlier remake deal was cancelled.

Adani Group, which also runs Mumbai's airport and distributes electricity in the city, had in 2022 won the project by offering to pay Rs 5,070 crore -- more than 2.5 times the sum quoted by the next highest bidder -- to provide houses, with a kitchen and a toilet, to eligible slum dwellers in revamped Dharavi.

The group has an 80 per cent stake in the firm executing the project, with the remainder held by the state.

Seclink Technologies, a Dubai-based consortium that initially won the cancelled the 2018 tender, challenged the new contract in the Bombay High Court, alleging the process "unlawfully" favoured Adani by raising bidders' net worth requirements and limiting consortium members.

The state government said no contract had been agreed with Seclink and that the new tender was ordered because of the changed financial and economic situation in view of Covid pandemic. It also insisted that the Seclink consortium was not excluded from the bidding.

Starting from the 1950s, the several state governments had floated tenders to redevelop Dharavi, but none took off. The redevelopment essentially required acquiring large tracts of land, attracting investors to build modern utilities and resettlement of local residents.

The current redevelopment plan -- the state government's fourth attempt via a global tender -- has made the most progress. The project aims to transform the slum, which is around the size of Monaco, into modern apartments, offices, and malls.

Dharavi started as an informal settlement for Muslim leather tanners but soon turned into a cosmopolitan melting pot with migrants from across India making it their home. As Mumbai expanded, the slum was no longer on the fringes of the city and is now home to a large collection of cottage industries.

The Adani-led redevelopment project includes initiatives like sustainable transportation systems and modern infrastructure utilities. It includes vocational training to empower youth and aspiring workers in Dharavi, helping them secure eco-friendly jobs and improve their earning capabilities. These efforts are designed to create a more prosperous and environmentally friendly future for the community.