MUMBAI: The stalemate over acquiring more land for rehabilitation of those ineligible for free housing in the Dharavi redevelopment project is set to ease. The state cabinet on Monday approved handing over 124 acres of Deonar dumping ground, the city’s oldest and largest landfill spanning 311 acres, for the project.
BMC will keep 136 acres of the sprawl. The remaining land is marshy and unusable.
Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of Adani Group and the state govt that had collectively sought 540 acres for ineligible residents’ housing, will have to pay 25% of the ready reckoner rate to the revenue department for the land, while BMC, as a planning authority, has to ensure that the dump is scientifically closed before granting permission for housing.
The portion that BMC will hold back includes land for ongoing waste-to-energy project works, a peripheral road and ongoing landfill operations (see graphic). The latter, though, is only a temporary setup and will eventually be shut, said officials.
Slamming the cabinet decision, Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray alleged the landfill plot has been given to Adani Group despite BMC, which needs the land, registering formal objections to the plan. Former Dharavi MLA and Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad said “the mega loot and betrayal of Mumbai” has now breached the limits. “The cabinet meeting was another blow to public interest, with 124 acres of civic land in Deonar being given for Adani’s ‘Dharavi vinash’ (destroy Dharavi) project. This land was previously a waste dumping ground and gaseous discharge continues here even today. Despite this, it is being repurposed… at the cost of the rights of Dharavikars.”
Faiyaz Shaikh, who lives near the Deonar landfill, asked how BMC planned to tackle the additional burden of people when it is already struggling to provide civic facilities to the existing residents. A survey to determine eligible and ineligible residents in Dharavi notified area is currently underway.
Earlier, 46 acres of the Mulund dumping ground had also been sought for the Dharavi project. BMC had, in an RTI reply to BJP’s former MP Kirit Somaiya, said it would take at least six years for the ongoing bio-mining work at that site to be completed.
Somaiya said it was clear that the 46 acres of the land would not have been available for the rehabilitation plan. This Jan, the state housing department, while asking for the Mulund land along with the 18-acre Mulund octroi naka plot, had said it estimated at least 3-4 lakh households would need to be provided rental housing.
A few days ago, the cabinet approved the transfer of 140 acres of collector’s land at Madh in Malad West for the project. The Centre has cleared the handover of 256 acres of saltpans in the eastern suburbs but only 50 acres is available for construction.
The land handover for the Dharavi project implies that BMC’s plan to construct a boundary wall around the Deonar dump, place CCTV cameras and initiate other measures to prevent recurrent fires at the site will likely be stalled.
Of the 7,200 tonnes of waste that Mumbai generates, 6,500 tonnes is sent to Kanjurmarg and Deonar, while 700 tonnes is decentralised and processed at other levels without BMC’s intervention.
