In private, Korde says he realizes that these are Dharavi’s final days: “This plan will be implemented. And it should, because development is good.”
But only if he gets what he wants, he adds. “If I can get them 400 sq. ft, instead of 225, then it is good.”
All other slum rehabilitation buildings in the city provide only 225 sq. ft apartments. Dharavi is different because it has one million people and, quite practically speaking, most of them vote. Space is an intensely human problem that resonates with every Mumbaikar, and is an issue that poll-bound parties cannot ignore.
Last month, Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray threatened the Congress in a rally at Dharavi: “We will not allow laying of a single brick in Dharavi if the residents did not get 400 sq. ft home instead of the proposed 225 sq. ft.”
In true Thackeray style, he issued a deadline: eight days. He gave the state government the deadline to draft a new blue print for the project.
That was 23 days ago. There has been no new draft.
But the rally rattled the government. Last week, in a closed-door meeting, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh asked for feasibility studies and see if there is any way to meet the 400 sq. ft demand.
Trying to appease everyone will be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” a person closely involved in negotiations said, on the condition of anonymity. Naming the official may jeopardize ongoing negotiations, but he said everyone cannot have 400 sq. ft. To do so, he says, would make the project unviable and compromise quality, and “after all this, Dharavi will remain Dharavi.”
Rahul Chandran in New Delhi contributed to this story.