2 Chinese firms bid for Rs10,700-crore revamp of BDD chawl in Mumbai’s Worli

Three foreign firms, two of them from China, have shown an interest to redevelop one of Mumbai's largest land sprawls on prime real estate, the Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) chawl at Worli.

The Rs10,700-crore redevelopment project will unlock around 52 acres at Worli in south Mumbai and yield thousands of low-cost houses to add to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority's (Mhada) stock of affordable houses for sale. 

“All the three foreign firms have bid in consortium with Indian companies. We recently opened the technical bids. After scrutiny, we will have to apply to the Centre for a security clearance for the bids before proceeding to the next stage — opening financial bids,” said a senior Mhada official. The government will pick the contractor which fulfils all technical qualifications and quotes the lowest bid. 

A state housing department official said the government has to seek a security clearance before giving work to any foreign firm and more so in this case as there are two Chinese companies involved. 

Read: Mumbai: BDD chawls revamp in Worli gets zero response, tenders postponed

The two Chinese companies are CITIC Construction Co Ltd and China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corporation Ltd. CITIC has bid in consortium with Capacity Infraprojects and Tata Projects Ltd while China Construction Eighth Engineering has bid in consortium with IL&FS Transportation Networks and IL&FS Maritime. The third consortium in the fray is Lebanon-based Arabian Construction Company Holding Ltd with ACC India. 

The BDD chawls were developed by the British in the 1920s as a low-cost housing solution for the city. There are 207 such chawls spread across 37 hectare in four areas — Worli, Sewri, NM Joshi Marg and Naigaon. More than 12,000 families live in the 160-square foot houses at these locations. The buildings are dilapidated and in urgent need of redevelopment. 

The Worli BDD chawl is the third one for which the state government has initiated redevelopment, after Naigaon, Dadar, and NM Joshi Marg, Lower Parel. The state government has picked Larsen & Toubro for the redevelopment of the Naigaon chawl and Shapoorji Pallonji Group for the NM Joshi Marg chawl. Work started at both the places earlier this year. The BDD chawl at Naigaon is spread across 42 acres, while the one at NM Joshi Marg is sprawled over 32 acres. 

Being under the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), the BDD chawl at Sewri falls under the jurisdiction of the Union government. The state government is in talks with MbPT on how to revamp the chawl.

Read: Can BDD chawl redevelopment script new history?