Dharavi is the worlds largest slum, a sprawling 200 acres of prime land near South Mumbai. Dharavi is home to around 700,000 - 1000,000 people and till date is the leading production center for textile, pottery, ceramics and leather in Mumbai. Dharavi is located in the prime area of Mumbai surrounded by Matunga, Dadar, Bandra Kurla complex, Bandra West and the sea on one smaller side.
Several redevelopment plans and urban scale interventions have been proposed starting right from the 90's but have seen no further improvement or initiation. The most affected have been the residents of Dharavi who have repeatedly been disappointed with such motives.
The reasons often quoted for the failure of progress in the development plans have been manipulated by the public and private sectors for their own benefits. These include :
The current residents willingness to move into a new and away residence is not enough
Failure to engage residents during the planning
The funds allocated and tender bid taken up does not cover all the necessary aspects of this large scale development
Repeated revisions of the city plan caused confusion and further delay in implementing
Economic standards will plunge if the current scenario is disturbed
Presence of local groups that interfere with progression
Absence of resources to be utilized temporarily during the process of establishing a complete masterplan
Dharavi was split up into 5 sectors in order to propose individual tenders and to implement a steady growth in progress during development. Dharavi was an inviting locality for the Urban middle class and poor. Compared to the surrounding areas, Dharavi priced at close to 25,000 Rs per square feet, which would be the minimum considering the connectivity and location. This along with more domestic economic conditions made people flock to the location as well as kept people from moving away.
Local conditions in Dharavi include, unhygienic and unsanitary streets with overcrowded traffic and people thronging to local vendors. Education was not at its best, high dropout rates and low encouragement of children to take up schooling made the literacy rates an all time low. They preferred taking up jobs and earning money no matter how meagre so as to support the family and its condition.
So how do you propose a city scale redevelopment when you have extreme conditions in all fronts, economical, educational, law enforcement, environmental and mainly political.
Here is a brief look at the timeline of past propositions concerning Dharavi:
1995: NRI developer Mukesh Mehta envisions redevelopment of Dharavi, remains unfulfilled for years
2005 : DRA, Dharavi Redevelopment Authority formed
2007 : Tender floats with no major developer involved
2011 : Sector 5 given to MHADA
2018 : Tender floated again, International bid
2019 : Seclink emerges as the highest bidder of 7200 crores, Letter of Intimation issued by the govt.
2022 : Awaiting re-tender based on the opinion of the Advocate General
We are still awaiting progress and development to begin, the hopes of close to a million people for better infrastructure and lifestyle still remains a dream, with claims of efforts being taken to fulfill this supposed vision.
Here are a few proposed models from around the world who have studied Dharavi and have come up with fascinating solutions which just might work out in the Indian context.
Envisioned by Ganti + Associates (GA) Designs, their natural go to solution was a high rise with a parasitic front. Projections clinging onto and from existing buildings, creating niches for commercial and social centers.
Ideated by Felixx + Studio OxL Architects, they aim to reinvent the street scape of Dharavi, from being an isolated poverty scene to a dynamic culmination of social, commercial and political factors.
Proposed by Foster + Partners, they designed an entire masterplan with individual models for social, commercial and economic centers. A complete revision of existing buildings to facilitate better economic and lifestyle conditions.
Dharavi is the most complicated yet functioning case study of rapid urban growth. It can also be termed as a wicked problem, which thus far has not been solved. Any small changes to the this dense society could have multiple and varied iterations of outcomes that further may deepen the problem or relax the tightly wound constraints of development here.
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