Indian billionaire Gautam Adani on Thursday (July 20) shared his vision for the redevelopment of Dharavi, a bustling and diverse neighbourhood in the financial capital of India, Mumbai. The chairman of the Adani Group said he plans to convert Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, into a modern city hub. This move will posses a huge challenge of rehousing around 1 million people who live in the locality.
While sharing his plans, Adani reminisced about his first encounter with Dharavi in the late 1970s, where he was captivated by the vibrant mix of cultures and languages from across India.
The billionaire also recognised the challenges ahead and acknowledged that the project is unique due to its scale and complexity. Adani emphasised that the redevelopment will be a human-centric transformation, with the people of Dharavi at its core.
“The design and implementation of the Dharavi project are challenges monumental in both scale and dimensions,” Adani said. “We are also aware that the project will test our resilience, our capability and our execution skills to their limits.”
“The new Dharavi will reflect the quintessential character of Mumbai — the spirit, grit, unity in diversity, colour and determination — without losing the timeless essence of the old Dharavi,” Adani wrote in an op-ed for The Hindu BusinessLine.
Gautam Adani’s $619 million bid for Dharavi makeover
In November last year, Adani Properties secured the bid to spearhead the redevelopment of the slum as the project’s lead partner.
In his bid, Adani pledged to ensure inclusiveness and reflect the essence of Mumbai in the latest project, by developing an institutionalised mechanism to gather the views and sentiments of Dharavi’s residents and all stakeholders.
The state government of Maharashtra last week confirmed Adani’s $619 million bid to redevelop the area that covers 625 acres (253 hectares), and has been described by officials as “the world’s largest urban renewal scheme.”
The chairman of the Adani Group also expressed his commitment to creating a “state-of-the-art world-class city” that would reflect a resurgent and self-assured India “as the 21st century belongs to India”.
World’s largest urban renewal scheme
Dharavi is a slum area in the heart of Mumbai that houses thousands of poor families in cramped quarters. In the locality, many residents have no access to running water or clean toilets.
Gautam Adani on the company’s website wrote that the redevelopment will provide gas, water, drainage, healthcare and other facilities to them.
It may be noted that the redevelopment of Dharavi was first brought to the table in the 1980s as a way to develop valuable land while providing proper housing to those living there.
It is the latest mega-project taken on by ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group, which already supplies electricity in Mumbai through listed unit Adani Transmission .
The billionaire’s group has been under pressure in recent months after U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research accused it of improper business practices, leading to a more than $150 billion plunge in value of group’s main stocks. Adani denied wrongdoing, and the stocks have since recovered by around $50 billion after he assured investors and repaid debt.
(With inputs from Reuters)