<p>Mumbai’s oldest and Asia’s second largest red-light district, Kamathipura, is all set to transform into a modern township with its tennents, landlords and other stakeholders agreeing for the facelift plan. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The neighbourhood is divided roughly into 14 lanes, each according to the ethno-linguistic backgrounds of the sex workers residing there. Originally christened Lal Bazaar, it acquired its current name after Kamathis or workers from Telangana. <br />“The tenants have agreed for the development plan,” Mumbadevi Congress MLA Amin Patel told Deccan Herald on Monday. <br /><br />“The landlords have also endorsed the plan to transform the place into a proper township with schools, colleges, playgrounds, hospitals and other amenities,” he added. <br /><br />Despite nestling between some of the city’s poshest localities like Malabar Hill, Colaba, Worli and Mazgaon, Kamathipura did not undergo any major development for decades due to its red-light tag. <br /><br />However, Patel said the project would transform lives of the 7,000 tenements and 30,000 residents of the neighbourhood. <br /><br />“It is a big project, the need of the hour for the seamless development of south Mumbai,” Patel said. <br /><br />Armed with a feasibility report from renowned project management consultant Sailesh Mahimtura, Kamathipura Landlord Association (KLA) is all set to float a global tender inviting interest to develop the 40-acre neighbourhood at the heart of the city. Each residents have asked for a 525 square feet houses with all modern amenities. <br /><br />In 1992, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recorded 50,000 sex workers here, which came down to 1,600 in 2009 and has further dwindled to a mere 500 currently. <br /><br />Safed Gully (White Lane), the busy street in Kamathipura reputed to have housed European prostitutes, is evidence of the neighbourhood’s early notoriety for flesh trade. The street has since been renamed Cursetji Shuklaji Street.<br />The city’s first venereal disease clinic was opened in 1916, and was taken over by BMC in 1925.<br /></p>
<p>Mumbai’s oldest and Asia’s second largest red-light district, Kamathipura, is all set to transform into a modern township with its tennents, landlords and other stakeholders agreeing for the facelift plan. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The neighbourhood is divided roughly into 14 lanes, each according to the ethno-linguistic backgrounds of the sex workers residing there. Originally christened Lal Bazaar, it acquired its current name after Kamathis or workers from Telangana. <br />“The tenants have agreed for the development plan,” Mumbadevi Congress MLA Amin Patel told Deccan Herald on Monday. <br /><br />“The landlords have also endorsed the plan to transform the place into a proper township with schools, colleges, playgrounds, hospitals and other amenities,” he added. <br /><br />Despite nestling between some of the city’s poshest localities like Malabar Hill, Colaba, Worli and Mazgaon, Kamathipura did not undergo any major development for decades due to its red-light tag. <br /><br />However, Patel said the project would transform lives of the 7,000 tenements and 30,000 residents of the neighbourhood. <br /><br />“It is a big project, the need of the hour for the seamless development of south Mumbai,” Patel said. <br /><br />Armed with a feasibility report from renowned project management consultant Sailesh Mahimtura, Kamathipura Landlord Association (KLA) is all set to float a global tender inviting interest to develop the 40-acre neighbourhood at the heart of the city. Each residents have asked for a 525 square feet houses with all modern amenities. <br /><br />In 1992, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recorded 50,000 sex workers here, which came down to 1,600 in 2009 and has further dwindled to a mere 500 currently. <br /><br />Safed Gully (White Lane), the busy street in Kamathipura reputed to have housed European prostitutes, is evidence of the neighbourhood’s early notoriety for flesh trade. The street has since been renamed Cursetji Shuklaji Street.<br />The city’s first venereal disease clinic was opened in 1916, and was taken over by BMC in 1925.<br /></p>
