Residents of Dharavi are growing wary of Gautam Adani's plan to redevelop Aisa's largest slum
Residents of Dharavi slum are wary of Gautam Adani’s plan to rehouse them after the billionaire faced financial setbacks amid allegations of receiving favours from the Narendra Modi Government. The residents are losing confidence on Adani’s capacity to hold on to his promise.
Adani plans to redevelop Dharavi after the Maharashtra state government in July approved his $614 million contract bid to overhaul the slum, according to a report by Reuters.
Adani Group aims to demolish what it describes in legal documents as an area of "unhygienic, deplorable" conditions and build new towers on state-owned land to accommodate residents and their businesses. Consultancy Liases Foras estimates Adani may invest up to $12 billion on remaking Dharavi and in return get development rights that could yield revenue of up to $24 billion.
As per the plan, only those who already lived in Dharavi before 2000, mostly ground-floor residents, will get free homes within the redevelopment. About 700,000 inhabitants of mezzanine and upper floors are considered ineligible by the government and will be offered units up to 10 kilometers away, which they say could require them to pay upfront costs or higher rents.
Some Dharavi residents cited the billionaire's financial troubles as contributing to their concerns, in interviews with Reuters. The tycoon was the world's third-richest person until January, when despite his denials, allegations by U.S. short seller Hindenburg of improper dealings wiped $150 billion off his group's market valuations.
A fresh threat to Adani's plans is a legal challenge from rival bidder SecLink Technologies Corporation. The Dubai-based consortium, which says it is backed by Bahrain's royal family, alleges Maharashtra improperly cancelled an original 2018 tender, for which SecLink bid highest, and restarted the process with new terms in 2022 so that Adani could win, according to court papers reviewed by Reuters.
Adani, in a non-public submission to judges before an Aug. 31 hearing, denied SecLink's allegations and argued the case should be thrown out in the interest of development.
Maharashtra said in a submission that SecLink's claims were "baseless" and that officials had followed "proper process" in cancelling the earlier tender, according to a Reuters review of non-public filings related to the case. It said it restarted the process because it added another land parcel to the project after the 2018 tender had closed.
Adani Group, SecLink, Maharashtra's Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Modi's office did not respond to questions from Reuters for this report.