Dharavi survey to commence from March 18, kickstarting one of world's largest urban rejuvenation projects

Mumbai: In a significant development, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd (DRPPL), the joint venture between the Maharashtra government and the Adani Group, will begin the survey to collect data from lakhs of informal tenement residents of Dharavi on March 18, 2024.

The data will be used by the state government to determine their rehabilitation eligibility criteria under the proposed redevelopment project.

The survey will also create, for the first time ever, a ‘Digital Dharavi’ — an advanced library of one of the world’s largest informal settlements.

The survey will begin from Kamla Raman Nagar, with a unique number being given to each informal tenement.

This will be followed by laser mapping of the settlement's labyrinth lanes, known as the LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Survey. A trained team will visit every tenement with an indigenously developed application to scan documents of the Dharavi residents too.

“The survey for Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) and Government of Maharashtra kickstarts one of the largest urban rejuvenation projects in the world and is the first step to make Mumbai slum free. It is the beginning of transforming Dharavi into a world-class township, a state-of-the-art city within Mumbai. We urge people of Dharavi to support this exercise, which will enable us to execute the rehabilitation process and ultimately provide them with their dream home,” a DRPPL spokesperson said on Monday.

The unique feature of the DRP scheme of the Maharashtra government is that each and every informal tenement holder will get a home. For the very first time in such a project, homes will be provided to qualified ineligible tenement holders too. Recently, DRPPL announced that as per the DRP tender, all eligible and ineligible resident tenement holders will get a flat with an independent kitchen and toilet.

Also, eligible industrial and commercial units in redeveloped Dharavi will enjoy a five-year holiday in State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) payment to boost and help formalise their businesses; this is also as per the tender conditions.

DRPPL has engaged world-renowned city and infrastructure planning experts – US-based design firm Sasaki and UK-based town planners Buro Happold – to design a world- class city.