Mumbai: A Reliance-led consortium emerged as the highest bidder for 101-acre Juhu Galli slum cluster redevelopment project last week. Reliance 4IR Realty Development Ltd made the bid in a consortium with Mahadev Realtors Juhu Pvt Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Aspect Reality. This consortium offered to pay the highest 35.1% premium to Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), which is 10% above the regular premium of 25%.Shapoorji Pallonji, Reliance and JSW had bid for Mumbai’s first cluster slum redevelopment scheme at Juhu Galli. SRA officials and urban planning experts said that this marked a paradigm shift in the city’s social housing and SRA’s history. This is the first time corporations are taking part in slum rehab schemes, which for many decades has been the mainstay for smaller developers often with political links that help them operate. With big corporations, the way slum redevelopment takes place is also changing. From small standalone buildings, which were common in SRA projects plagued by massive delays, pending rent disputes, protests, political interference, corruption allegations and court cases, the new cluster redevelopment scheme is expected to push large redevelopment that will redesign whole neighbourhoods and not just one slum pocket.While big developers and corporates have worked with Mhada and other mega projects like the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), the Juhu Galli scheme marks the first time that corporates have entered slum redevelopment. SRA CEO Mahindra Kalyankar said after Juhu Galli, SRA is set to launch 18 projects under the slum cluster redevelopment scheme. All these projects will have land parcels of more than 50 acres and house thousands of slum tenants. Slum cluster schemes will come up in Mankhurd, Govandi, Sion, Wadala, Vikhroli Park Site, Goregaon West, Kandivli West and Borivli East, among others. Tenders will be floated soon for the 19 projects once the demarcation of the plots is finalised, SRA officials said.“Juhu Galli marks a historic milestone in Mumbai’s journey towards inclusive urban renewal and the creation of a slum-free city. The Juhu Galli Cluster Redevelopment Project is among the largest and first-ever slum cluster redevelopment initiatives ever undertaken in Mumbai and is expected to result in the construction of more than 28,000 rehabilitation homes for eligible slum dwellers. This project is aimed at unlocking large slum clusters that have remained difficult to redevelop under conventional rehabilitation models. The initiative is expected to transform the urban landscape of the area while providing residents with safe, dignified and modern housing,” Kalyankar said.Industry experts, though, pointed out that this will also mean smaller builders won’t be able to work in SRA anymore and small slum pockets which remain out of cluster schemes will find it very hard to get redeveloped.Pankaj Joshi, principal director at Urban Centre Mumbai, said companies like Reliance entering SRA does mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in the slum development and this was a natural progression for the social housing sector. “A similar progression was seen in the social housing sector in the US, Europe and UK. Initially the social housing sector was only seen as something for small builders dealing with small land parcels, but later big corporations came into social housing and scaled up the sector. In the case of the London Docklands redevelopment too, millions of pounds was required to be pumped in and it was only possible for big corporations to do this. These corporations were already present in luxury housing but selling a few hundred flats to HNIs doesn’t have an impact on the city. But building 20,000 units of social housing transforms the city. Big corporations have the financial muscle and are insulated from local shocks and nuisance too. So they can bring scale and speed into SRA projects, which are usually known for dragging on for decades,” Joshi said.Joshi said the SRA could deliver less than 3 lakh housing units in the 30 years since it was formed in 1996. “Mumbai has to create at least 20 lakh social housing stock through slum rehab. Going by SRA’s track record it would take around 250 years to reach that figure. So it was high time that slum cluster redevelopment was initiated. It was an idea whose time had come. It certainly marks a paradigm shift in SRA and social housing but whether this shift will be able to scale within the time frame remains to be seen. Whether this change will have a positive impact or not is also early to predict but certainly, this change was a natural progression in social housing,” Joshi said.Mumbai Congress chief and MP Varsha Gaikwad said the SRA was forced to invite tenders for the Juhu Galli plot after she exposed the blatant irregularities in the SRA’s earlier bid to ‘gift’ the plot to favourite corporates and builders. “Now a tender was floated and some due process was followed. But it is very clear that under this Mahayuti govt, Mumbai is for sale, plot by plot and Galli by Galli. Slum rehabilitation must be people-centric and not builder-centric. Now with corporates coming into SRA, slum dwellers will not have any say and they will be forced to agree to any terms and conditions set by the corporate players. Many slum dwellers will be bought out and asked to leave Juhu and pushed outside Mumbai. We will monitor how many original tenants still remain in Juhu. This is nothing but land bank politics of the corporates being facilitated by this govt for windfall financial gains,” Gaikwad said, who is also fighting alleged irregularities in the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).Officials pointed out that in the Juhu Galli scheme, the company will pay around Rs 180 crore pending rent to tenants and will pay 2 years’ advance rent, which is around Rs 750 crore, which is a major feat for the SRA.“The Juhu Galli Cluster Redevelopment Project is poised to transform one of Mumbai’s largest slum settlements into a modern, well-planned urban neighbourhood with quality housing, improved infrastructure, open spaces, social amenities and enhanced connectivity. The project will significantly improve the living conditions of thousands of families while contributing to the city’s long-term urban renewal objectives,” Kalyankar said.Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao movement activist Bilal Khan said that the SRA must ensure that all tenants are rehabilitated in situ and a high-powered grievance cell must be set up for slum dwellers. “The tenants must not be forced out of the area. Also, the rehab buildings will be high-rises too so a mega corpus must be given as slum tenants will not be able to maintain these buildings after the builder has left. As long as all tenants remain at the same location, which is the core spirit of slum rehabilitation in Mumbai, then slum cluster schemes won’t face opposition,” Khan said.
