For the past 15 years, Asif Ahmed has been running a small tannery business from Asia's largest slum, Dharavi, in central Mumbai. Like Ahmed, there are many who do not pay local taxes, even as they export leather out of India.
None of them are aware that in the next seven years, they will have to relocate.
Ahmed is unlucky to be in the polluting tannery business. In 1997, the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation created an 80-hectare export-oriented leather park at Ambernath a Mumbai suburb.
"However, after spending Rs 36 crore (Rs 14 crore by the Union government and the rest by MIDC), the Dharavi tanners didn't budge," says MIDC chief executive officer, Bhushan Gagrani.
He points out that, however, few Kolkatta tanneries shifted to the new site. Last week, the Maharastra government cleared a redevelopment plan for Dharavi.
As per the plan, the 174 hectare Dharavi region will be divided into nine segments, each to be developed into swank residential housing units to replace the sea of hutments. When that happens, unlike Ahmed, Asimbhai Sheikh's ceramic business will remain intact. In fact, his ramshackle factory will be re-housed in a modestly posh industrial zone.
It is the same for Kevalchand Shah, who makes crispies like chivda and chikki. The state's industries department wants to legalise all the businesses thriving in Dharavi, provided they are non-polluting.
The recast plan is the brainchild of Mukesh Mehta, a non-resident Indian developer from the US. Mehta has constructed customised residential units in Long Beach, New York. For the last seven years, he has been researching and formulating the Dharavi blueprint -- Dharavi Mandal (Dharam).
According to him, it is an integration of the residents of the slumland with the rest of urban Mumbai. It is an outcome of hard lobbying with successive state governments, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine and then the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party led administration. It could be a win-win arrangement for all, argues Mehta.
"I am sure that the next five to seven years will see tangible results. The design has been changed so that post-development, there will be a social, cultural and economic integration of the residents of Dharavi with the rest of the city. It will compare as a good modern suburb where currently lower income households will be able to avail of better infrastructure creating a better income generation potential for them," says Mehta.
How will this happen? "Look at the core industrial activity contracted out of Dharavi today. Leather, ceramic, garments and food processing industries are proliferating, But being unorganised, the entrepreneurs' profit margins are low.
Items like chivda and chikki stocked in groceries across the city are cooked in unhygenic conditions and squalor here," adds Mehta.
According to him 55 per cent to 60 per cent of the slum dwellers live in a parasitic relationship. "They do not pay taxes despite a tremendous industry flourishing in the Dharavi region. Imagine what would happen if an international leather institute was set up in the region with several leather manufacturers," he says.
He also points out to the ceramic pots and pans which sell for Rs 50. "Post-development, these could sell for Rs 500," he adds.
The objective is simple: create sufficient income capabilities and a middle-income group would arise out of the slums. "Instead of bleeding the city, this region will start contributing to it. The redevelopment plan for the region will see industrial pockets being created for these entrepreneurs who have been living here for several years without relocation," explains Mehta.
His plan seeks to not only rehouse the 71,000 families into free 225 sq feet houses but also ensures that each family earning around Rs 30,000 will be able to make a minimum of Rs one lakh annually.
For the moment though, the plan has enthused many. These include city builders like the Kalpatru group, Rahejas and other construction majors and even non-governmental organisations like the the Slum Rehabilitation Society run by Austrian Adolf Staggller.
Politicians claim that each developer could make profits of at least Rs 150 crore from just free sale property and transferred development rights (TDR). What's more, the government has permitted a floor space index of four instead of the prevailing 2.5 for Dharavi. This means that the sky is the limit for developers.
Last week, however, Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde announced that the state would invite global tenders. Bidding begins three months from now.
"This will only make the bids more competitive," says Mehta, who plans to use the 'tunnel form shuttering technology', which creates four homes in a span of a mere 24 hours.
Even so, Mehta is not all gung ho. "I am skeptical about the bureaucratic will to redevelop the region. We are made to run from pillar to post for documents that should be simply made available on demand," he says.
But this could soon change. The state government has set up a committee under chief secretary Ajit Nimbalkar to provide a single window for facilitating the redevelopment plan. Will this seriousness last?
