Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/railways-agrees-to-hand-over-land-for-dharavi-redevelopment-8217072/
Publisher: Indian Express
In a significant step towards redevelopment of Asia’s biggest slum colony in Mumbai, the Ministry of Railways on Tuesday agreed to hand over its land for the project with its Rail Land Development Authority signing an agreement with the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Authority in New Delhi.
After a meeting with Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “The agreement has paved the way for the project,” adding, “Our government is committed to take it to its logical end. We will ensure absolute transparency in the process to make affordable housing and a slum-free Mumbai a reality.”
At the meeting, Union Minister Vaishnaw assured the state government that all bottlenecks related to the railway land will be removed. Fadnavis said, “The Railway Minister has assured cooperation in taking the project forward.”
Fadnavis, who also met Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Delhi, said, “I have requested Scindia to hand over the Air India building to the state government… government offices would be accommodated in it.”
He added, “We have our government headquarters at the Mantralay. We have taken up the entire Mantralay and Annex buildings and we still need space for our administrative work and operations.” During my stint as the CM, I had sent a proposal to the Centre, requesting them to hand over the Air India building to the state government. But with the change of the government, the proposal was not taken up. With the CM’s consent [now], we will pursue it with the Centre,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Dharavi redevelopment project will be spread over 240 hectares of land at an estimated cost of Rs 25,000 crore. To be implemented in phases, it aims to provide proper accommodation to slum dwellers, with good infrastructure and civic amenities. Its pre-bid meeting in Mumbai earlier this week was attended by eight developers, including those from UAE, South Korea and Indian.
Another important project that was discussed in the meeting with the minister was the development of high speed railway and cargo along the Maharashtra Samruddhi Corridor. The 701km-Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg between Nagpur and Mumbai criss-crosses across 24 districts of the state. Calling it a game-changer, the Deputy CM said, “The Centre has assured us that it will initiate measures and work out plans towards the project.”
The state government also got the nod from the Minister for starting a Vande Bharat train on the Mumbai-Solapur route.
