Mumbai: Some families from Dharavi’s Meghwadi-Ganesh Nagar slum stormed the Dharavi Redevelopment Project’s (DRP) office at Matunga and staged protests as other homes in their area were being demolished on Thursday.Around 11 structures were razed. Meghwadi-Ganesh Nagar abuts Sector 6, which is railway land and where the rehabilitation buildings have been proposed to be built.In Meghwadi-Ganesh Nagar, 125 households were served eviction notices. Around 80 families appeared before DRP for a hearing and accepted the proposal for temporary shifting. They are being offered Rs 18,000 per month as rent for a ground floor tenement and Rs 15,000 per month as rent for an upper storey house. Another Rs 5,000 is being offered for moving out.But 45 families have been holding out, refusing to move. Residents said on the condition of anonymity they had been promised key-to-key rehabilitation and eviction notices served on July 28 came as a huge shock. “The master plan has not been published. We do not know where the rehab flats are being constructed. No agreement is being signed for the rehab flat. So we do not even know if we will be given a home in Dharavi,” said a resident.BMC plans to lay a sewer line through the slum, which will connect to the upcoming Dharavi wastewater treatment facility. This is to prevent untreated sewage from being discharged into the Mithi river.There are 3,500 hutments in Sector 6, of which 379 have been demolished so far. Another 890 have been vacated and BEST and BMC are in the process of disconnecting electricity and water connections. The scrutiny process for the remaining structures is still underway, said sources.
