In Delhi, some slums in the city’s centre have been cleared for development and the people housed in suburbs on the periphery of the city. For the redevelopment to work, “the city’s transport system has to be extended to these areas and the government has to ensure that the quality of housing (provided as part of the relocation) is really good”, says Vivek Dahiya, the managing director of DTZ, a UK-headquartered real estate advisory.
Despite such opposition, slum redevelopment projects will likely only gather momentum given the rising need for land. In Pune, Lalit Gandhi, chairman, Kumar Builders, has been lobbying the state and the city governments to partner with developers for slum clearance projects.
In Bangalore, the city administration has been working with non-governmental organizations such as Avas to help relocate slum dwellers in pucca houses through loans to self-help groups.
The National Housing Bank, the regulator of the mortgages industry, has drawn up guidelines for loans targeted at rural housing needs.
Krittivas Mukherjee ofReuters and AFP contributed to this story.
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