Adani Group Company To Redevelop Dharavi
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2022-11-30 15:10:52
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Adani Properties Private Limited, the realty arm of the Adani group has bagged the Rs 23000cr Dharavi redevelopment project with a bid of Rs 5069cr. For a project of its size, scope and opportunity on prime land in Mumbai, it surprisingly attracted only three bids. Apart from Adani, DLF quoted Rs 2025cr and Shree Naman Group, the other bidder, was disqualified in the technical round. The project failed to attract more bidders despite the fact that the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority (DRA) reduced the base price from Rs 3150cr in 2018 (which bidding process was later cancelled) to Rs 1600cr this time.
The main reason that the project fails to attract bidders despite its obvious commercial value is that it is a very complex project that involves registered/qualified and unregistered slumdwellers, commercial and industrial enterprises, Railways land (the possession of which has still not been given to the DRA), concurrent redevelopment of Railway quarters and other properties and salt pan land. It involves a huge number of stakeholders and equally complex permissions from innumerable authorities. Although the DRA is expected to handhold the bidder and get all the clearances, delays and consequent cost overruns are expected to be huge. Then there is no doubt that at each stage of the project, some disgruntled stakeholders, backed, of course, by local politicians out to create mischief and perhaps build a vote bank, will create hurdles and hold the final bidder and the DRA to ransom.
For this reason, the project needed someone with political clout, in Maharashtra as well as in New Delhi, who can handle the twists and turns that the project is likely to encounter, has deep pockets to bear the expected cost overruns and has the patience and the resources to stay the course and yet make a sizeable profit. In this respect, there is no one better than the Adani group to carry out the project (that its bid was more than double the next highest bidder is an added bonus for the DRA) and give a better life to nearly 58000 eligible and an equal number of unregistered slumdwellers and an equitable solution to a host of businesses that operate out of the 178 hectares identified as Dharavi Notified Area and another 62 hectares of acquired land.
