State moots rental housing for Dharavi residents at Deonar dumping yard

Mumbai: After meeting with staunch opposition in places like Mulund, Kurla, Dahisar and Bhakti Park, the state housing department has proposed to rehabilitate Dharavi residents who are ineligible for free housing within the slum cluster at the dumping ground in Deonar. The move has raised concerns regarding exposure to toxic gases and fumes and spurred opposition party leaders to redouble their pleas for rehabilitating all residents within Dharavi.
“The BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) is corresponding with the state government regarding using the Deonar dumping ground plot for rental housing for ineligible Dharavi residents,” municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani told HT. The 326-acre land parcel, where BMC started dumping waste in 1927, is owned by the revenue department. It is under BMC’s possession, and only 70 acres would be required for the rental housing project, said Gagrani.
The BMC stopped dumping solid waste in Deonar a few years ago, when the dumping ground at Kanjurmarg became operational. The housing department has now proposed to use 70 acres of the plot at Deonar to develop rental homes for Dharavi residents who constructed tenements after January 1, 2000 and those living on the first or higher floors, at a cost of ₹2.5 lakh per tenement.
“The Deonar dumping yard is one of the places identified for rental housing and DRPPL has asked the housing department to process clearance for using this land,” said a senior officer from the housing department.
“The proposal for rental housing on the Deonar dumping yard plot is under consideration of the state government,” said Mumbai suburban collector Rajendra Kshirsagar.
Concerns were raised in several quarters about the government’s latest move. “Our command centre sits just next to the dumping ground and the gases that emanate from there have made our lives unbearable,” said a fire brigade officer. “We work only in eight-hour shifts, but can very well imagine the plight of residents who would have to stay there on permanent basis.’’
Opposition party leaders too slammed the move.
“Sending Dharavi residents to Deonar is inhuman. No one must be displaced and everyone must be rehabilitated in-situ (at the spot),” said Shiv Sena (UBT) MP from south central Mumbai, Anil Desai. “Dharavi has enough land for everyone and the residents have been living there since decades,” he noted.
Congress leader and former minister Naseem Khan echoed Desai, saying no Dharavi resident should be shifted outside. “We will oppose the move to shift Dharavi residents to Deonar,” he told HT.
Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slum clusters, is being redeveloped by the Adani Realty-led Dharavi Redevelopment Project Private Ltd (DRPPL). According to the project proposal, residents who constructed tenements prior to January 1, 2000 and those living on the ground floor would be given houses within Dharavi, while ineligible residents would be rehabilitated elsewhere.
The state government has until now proposed several locations for developing rental houses, only to put them in abeyance owing to protests from locals. BJP leader and former parliamentarian Kirit Somaiya took the lead in opposing rehabilitation on the Mulund dumping yard plot, while efforts to use the Kurla dairy plot were scuttled as residents wanted a zoological park. BJP leaders also opposed housing for Dharavi residents at the octroi naka plot in Dahisar, where an inter-state bus terminus has been sanctioned. Attempts to resettle Dharavi residents on salt pan land at Wadala also ran into stiff resistance from residents of Bhakti Park.