47.5 acres of prime rly land in Matunga and Mahim handed over for Dharavi project

Mumbai: The prime railway property in Matunga and Mahim, spread across 47.5 acres, will now be part of Asia’s largest slum redevelopment project in Dharavi. Over the weekend, the land was handed over to the Adani Group-led Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd (DRPPL) which on Monday began the survey to identify the eligible residents of the 600 acres slums.

Sources said that over the weekend there was a high-level meeting in the railway ministry where the nuances of leasing out the railway land for 99 years were finalised.

Senior railway officials said that the transfer of land happened after much resistance as certain sections within the railways were against the sub-leasing of the prime rail property. The railway officials, who have largely remained sceptical in this matter, which they term as “sensitive”, did not come on record to confirm this development. However, the process to transfer this rail land space began last week and was sealed over the weekend.

Sources said that the primary contention was over the future use of the railway land as Mumbai doesn’t have surplus land available for such commercial development projects. At Matunga, there were residential quarters which will be shifted while in Mahim there is a rail scrapyard that was remade over a decade ago.

“The rail administration is not coming out in the open that there shall be no operational use of these land parcels in the future. If there is operational use of this land then how can they transfer it to a private developer on lease? In the past the railways have maintained that they don’t have surplus land,” said railway union leaders.

As per plans, they want to rehabilitate the tenements of Dharavi on the railway land but there is also a clause that if the rail authorities need the land for operational use then they can vacate the people shifted there. Those residents found to be illegally staying in Dharavi and don’t have the necessary documents as per criteria, are likely to be shifted on 283.40 acres of salt pan land spread out between Kanjurmarg, Wadala and Bhandup.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was here in the city over the weekend, slammed the government for handing over the Dharavi project to the Adani Group.

On March 14, former Member of Parliament Congress Hussain Dalwai wrote to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw over his concern with the rehabilitation of Dharavi on railway land. “The railways can relinquish their land only if it’s no longer required for railway purposes. A declaration needs to be given over it being surplus land till the lease period,” Dalwai told HT.

The local residents of Dharavi too are sceptical about the plans to shift locals to rail land. “What if the people of Dharavi shifted on the railway land are asked to leave the premises on the grounds that railways need their land back for operational use? Where will the 10 lakh odd people go,” questioned Karunanidhi Kannan, a local resident of Dharavi and member of the NGO, CRN Foundation.

The Adani Group had emerged as the highest bidder for the 259-hectare Dharavi Redevelopment Project and bagged it with its ₹5,069 crore bid in the 2022 tender process that has a potential to generate revenue of over ₹23,000 crore. The state government has promised to give 350 sq. ft homes to the residents of Dharavi. The DRP will have an FSI of 4 but with a height restriction on account of proximity to the airport. The TDR (Transferable Development Rights) generated through the project is to be used/sold by DRPPL.