Now, flats in Dharavi cheaper than its slums

Winds of redevelopment sweeping across Dharavi are already changing the realty pricing paradigm. The world-famous slum cluster, where a shanty about 90-100 sq ft costs nothing less than Rs 15 lakh, has now got 300 sq ft apartments constructed only for Rs 7.20 lakh. You have Mhada's slum rehabilitation to thank for the swing in pricing.

Concrete plans: The apartment buildings will go up to 18 storeys

70 of separation
The apartment houses, built with technology that will keep them seven degrees cooler than the outside temperature, would have round-the-clock water supply. Mhada has spent Rs 2,400 to construct one square foot of these 1BHK modern dwellings, which will accommodate the inhabitants of sector V of this slum sprawl on the northern fringe of south Mumbai. The homes will rise up in ground-plus-18-storey buildings, with 21 apartments on each floor, giving a total of 558 flats. Thirteen of these floors have been constructed and nine of them are complete. The housing body is awaiting certain clearances from the Airport Authority of India to go ahead and build the remaining five floors. Mhada is utilising an FSI of 4, afforded to Slum Rehab Authority (SRA) schemes, to construct these buildings.

Phase I: Better living
Pramod Sawant, deputy chief engineer, MHADA, confirmed the development, saying, "We have spent Rs 2,400 per square foot for constructing the flats. Slum dwellers from Dharavi's sector V would be rehabilitated in these buildings. The buildings have modern amenities and will have 24-hour water supply." He added, "This is our pilot project and we are constructing 358 homes in the first phase. Our main aim is to show the slum dwellers that we are providing them with better living facilities than what they currently have."u00a0

Non-stop water supply is a luxury for inhabitants of Dharavi, who have to stand in queues for hours to fill water from community taps. "The buildings will have two tanks which would be filled from BMC reservoirs in a calibrated way, so that the residents get supply for 24 hours," said Sawant.

The slum dwellers wouldn't even have to pay for maintenance of their homes. Mhada is giving a corpus of Rs 20,000 to the residents as a full-time settlement. "We are expecting that the maintenance would come up to Rs 1,500 per month, which is reasonable. We'll give them Rs 20,000 which, if they deposit, would be sufficient for maintenance purposes for a long time to come," said another Mhada officer. u00a0

Fact file
>> 300 sq ft, carpet area of MHADA's IBHK flats in Dharavi's sector V
>> Rs 7.20 lakh, cost of one flat
>>u00a0Rs 2,400, amount Mhada has spent to construct every sq foot of these flats
>>u00a0358, number of the flats, which will be built in 18-storey bldgs
>>u00a0Rs 20,000, one-time settlement that Mhada will give slum dwellers for building maintenance u00a0