This is the story of how a billionaire acquired control over the real estate of a vast and powerful city—in the guise of redeveloping 296 acres of a slum.
First, the Dharavi backstory
In precolonial India: Dharavi was a tiny dot on the edge of Parel—one of seven islands that today are called Mumbai. It was home to a community of Koli fisherfolk. You can see its pre-colonial location in this early 18th-century map by an English Captain:
Dharavi remained unchanged by the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century—who built a fort on the opposite shore of Bandra.
A slum is born: Two hundred years later, the British, as usual, upended everything. The seven islands were fused into one—drying up the marshlands and the livelihood of the Koli community. Soon, the old was being subsumed by the new:
The landscape of Dharavi, around the 1850s, was a heterogeneous mixture of industrial and handicrafts. Fishing village huts and industrial sheds tore through the swampy lands, punctuated by people dragging carts filled with goods along the dirt roads. The skyline was smokestacks of the textile mills right beside the potters’ kilns (which would later develop into Kumbharwada, the potters’ colony).
Industrialisation of Bombay offered new opportunities for migrants—“potters from Saurashtra, Muslim leather tanners from Tamil Nadu, embroidery workers, and artisans from Uttar Pradesh, and confectioners from Tamil Nadu.” All of whom found their new home in Dharavi.
In post-independence India: The new rulers were no kinder to the poor than their British predecessors. Eviction drives between the 1940s and 1960s swelled Dharavi’s size and ranks:
[The drives] ‘dumped’ the ‘illegal’ squatters and ‘waste’ to Dharavi- slum dwellers, pavement dwellers from the areas on the other side of Dadar now found themselves in Dharavi, which was still on the outskirts of the city. The authorities ignored it for a while until the city exploded in population and grew northwards to bring Dharavi into the heart of the new city.
Slum rehab programs: The first was launched in 1971—when the state government passed the Maharashtra Slum Areas Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment Act. Dharavi was officially declared a slum—and its residents were given taps, toilets and electrical connections. In the 1980s, the Rajiv Gandhi government followed suit with more rehabilitation programs—allotting hundreds of crores. Shiv Sena took the baton when it gained power in 1995.
Vision Dharavi: Cue the consultants!
Until the early 2000s, Dharavi was the target of run-of-the-mill welfare projects. In 2003, McKinsey became the first to lay out a grand corporate plan—in a report titled ‘Vision Mumbai: Transforming Mumbai into a World-Class City’:
According to the report, the solution to the problems of Mumbai was a step-by-step demolition and rebuilding of the city, this time with around 3 times the FSI. The whole paradigm of the report was based on a public-private alliance to attract a huge amount of global capital into the housing and infrastructure sectors. It suggested the case of Shanghai as a model for Mumbai’s transformation.
This in turn birthed the 2004 Dharavi Redevelopment Plan—which carved Dharavi up into five sectors—and invited global firms to have at it. The residents were up in arms—mainly because it had not occurred to the McKinsey consultants to actually consult them:
More than 80% of Dharavi is a hybrid of residence-cum-workshop, which would not have been sustainable in buildings of 30 or 50 stories. With the source of livelihood destroyed, the people would no longer live in Dharavi and would disperse to populate other areas, mostly slums. Added to the problem was the fact that due to the absence of a baseline survey in the formulation of the plans, the number of ‘eligible’ slum dwellers was far from accurate.
Legendary architect Charles Correa said of the McKinsey report: “There is very little vision. They’re more like hallucinations.”
Also a problem: There were no takers for this redevelopment plan. The global recession in 2008 and populist rebellion kept companies at bay until 2016. But in 2018, Gautam Adani enters the arena—and that’s when our story truly begins.
How Adani won the Dharavi prize
In 2018, the Maharashtra government—ruled by BJP CM Devendra Fadnavis—issued a tender for a 20-80 public-private alliance to redevelop Dharavi. The two key contenders: Dubai-based SecLink consortium and the Adani Group. In 2019, SecLink won with a bid of $871 million—Adani came second at $548 million.
First plot mein twist: But in 2020, the state government junks the tender— “saying its acquisition of certain land for the project altered costs after the bidding process ended, and necessitated restarting the process.” The CM at this point is Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray—ruling with the support of Congress and NCP. SecLink goes to court to challenge the decision.
Second plot mein twist: After the BJP stages a dramatic comeback in 2022, CM Eknath Shinde issues a fresh tender. There are three bidders for the 2022 auction—our man Adani, DLF and Shree Naman Group. Adani wins with the highest bid of $614 million—which is way lower than the original SecLink bid. And SecLink is still fighting the decision in court—promising to pay even more in round two:
Senior advocate C. Aryama Sundaram, representing Seclink, argued that the company was willing to increase its bid by 20%, proposing a revised bid of Rs 8,640 crore—substantially higher than Adani’s base bid of Rs 5,069 crore. He highlighted that Seclink’s Rs 8,640 crore bid excluded an upfront payment of Rs 1,000 crore to the Indian Railways and an indemnity amount of Rs 2,800 crore. This, according to Seclink, made its overall financial commitment greater than Adani’s total bid of Rs 8,869 crore.
The case is languishing at the Supreme Court—which refuses to issue an interim stay order. Adani lawyers are arguing that the company has already invested way too much money in the project—for the tender outcome to be reversed. We all know how this story ends.
A very important point to note: Not only is SecLink willing to pay more, it is willing to do more for all Dharavi residents:
In its 2018 bid, Seclink… had a plan to rehabilitate all slum dwellers and commercial establishments on 200 acres, with 100 acres earmarked for gardens; 300 acres were planned to be used for buildings for sale. Seclink offered 350 square feet of housing to all the residents of Dharavi.
Gautam-bhai has a very different plan.
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Adani’s (eviction) dreams for Dharavi
Quick deet: In September 2023, Adani Properties formed a joint public-private venture called Dharavi Redevelopment Project Private Limited (DRPPL) with the state-controlled Dharavi Redevelopment Project. As originally planned, Adani Properties owns 80% in DRPPL. Also: Dharavi’s total area is 641 acres—of which 296 acres are allocated to the Dharavi redevelopment project.
The ‘eligibility’ clause: Unlike the SecLink proposal, the Adani project divides Dharavi residents into two categories. One is eligible for chhota 350 sq ft homes within Dharavi—the other will be given rental or permanent housing elsewhere. The project relies on a 2008 survey conducted by an NGO—Maharashtra Social Housing and Action Legal (Mashal)—to decide who is an original resident of Dharavi—and therefore eligible for housing.
The 2008 survey determined there were around 60,000 commercial and residential tenements. That number was later revised to 81,000—to account for people living in upper or mezzanine floors. But Adani’s DRPPL only recognises 64,000 residential and commercial tenements in slums and in chawls. It also doesn’t count anyone who came to Dharavi after June 1, 2000—which is 25 years ago!
What this means: Around 700,000 residents will have to leave Dharavi.
The greater horror: is that many of them will be rehomed in a massive landfill. According to the contract, these ‘ineligible’ residents will be given housing under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) (affordable housing scheme) in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. But a recent Indian Express investigation shows that at least 50,000-100,000 will be moved to the Deonar landfill—which is “one of the biggest waste dumps in Mumbai.” According to IE:
Deonar is no closed landfill; instead, it’s an active landfill, spewing toxic gases and discharging leachate (the liquid that drains out of waste piles, potentially contaminating groundwater, surface water and the soil with toxic organic and inorganic pollutants). According to a 2024 CBCB report submitted to the principal bench of the National Green Tribunal, an average 6,202 kg of methane is emitted from the Deonar landfill every hour, making it one of the top 22 methane hotspots in India.
Adani’s response: When asked about Deonar, the CEO offered this:
DRP CEO Srinivas said that given the “crisis of land” in Mumbai, there are “few options” when it comes to getting large land parcels for development. “In total, we will need an approximate land size of 200-300 acres for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. Therefore, considering the limitations, we chose the Deonar landfill,” he said.
State authorities have washed their hands of the matter—saying that the site was chosen by Adani officials.
Here’s the kicker: The Adani folks, in turn, have made it clear that municipal authorities will have to make the landfill habitable—using taxpayer money. It’s unclear how they will achieve this feat since the same authorities have also planned two waste recycling plants near Deonar.
Adani’s real reward: All of Mumbai
In November 2023, the state government announced a small tweak in its Dharavi redevelopment rules—something called Transfer of Development Rights (TDR). It is a thinly disguised gift to Adani—who will soon control all development in Mumbai. Here’s how it works.
Relocation rights: In order to rehouse ineligible Dharavi residents, the project has asked for “23 land parcels” across Mumbai. That’s a lot of expensive real estate:
Sagar Deore, advocate and RTI activist, procured a list of land parcels from DRPPL in which details of the actual land sought are given for 12 of 23 locations. These 12 parcels together cover more than 500 acres. It is believed that the total land parcels sought could go up to 1,250 acres in Mumbai city. The value of such a huge chunk of land will reportedly run into several thousand crores of rupees.
There’s already outrage over valuable government land allotted in Mulund and Kurla.
Not generous enough? Here’s another laddu. Because the government has classified Dharavi as a “vital public project’, anyone rehoused elsewhere must get 35% more area in their new location. But that ‘anyone’ is Adani and not the resident—because they are ‘ineligible’, after all. What this means: “the Adani Group could get to sell up to 628 sq ft of commercial area for every single 350 sq ft unit it builds in Dharavi.” All of which will total up to 7.86 crore (78.6 million) sq ft.
Still not enough? Here’s a big, fat TDR bonanza! Transfer of Developmental Rights is used to compensate owners who are not able to fully develop their land—mostly due to environmental restrictions. The Adani-walas are entitled to TDR for Dharavi because:
Srinivas, CEO of DRP, said out of the 640 acres of Dharavi, only 240 acres was developable. The remaining 400 acres was comprised of parks, creeks, mangrove patches, and fell within the coastal regulatory zone where development activities are barred, other than need to create roads, flyovers, etc.
This means that any land in Dharavi that cannot be utilised—its rights can be transferred (sold) to developers elsewhere in the city—where there are no such restrictions. Theek hai, TDR is common around the world.
TDR laddu #1: Typically, TDR is indexed to reflect market price:
For instance, if 1,000 square feet of TDR is generated from a specific project, the same quantum is not allowed to be used in plush markets like south Mumbai and only 100 square feet of it is allowed to be used.
But as a special exception, Adani-ji’s TDR is not indexed—therefore “the total area generated out of the TDR could be utilised now in areas like south Mumbai, Bandra, Juhu, Vile Parle”—where the cost of land is sky high.
TDR laddu #2: Since Gautam-bhai is such a good friend, the state government threw in another bonus—all builders will have to buy 40% of their TDR from him. What that means:
Any developer working on any project anywhere in Mumbai will first have to acquire Transfer Development Rights from DRPPL. In a way, this hands over control over all of the development in the city to the Adani Group.
Well, at least, all real estate construction anywhere in the city that requires TDR—typically to increase the height of a building beyond zoning limits. Reminder: There is huge demand in Mumbai to build upwards—since geography limits horizontal expansion.
The bottomline: To sum up, some Dharavi residents will receive either a napkin-sized 350 square foot home in a redeveloped slum—others will be exiled to a landfill or worse. In return, Gautam Adani will get all of Mumbai.
Reading list
Frontline (paywalled) has the best reporting on various Dharavi laddus given to Adani. Rethinking The Future offers an in-depth guide to Dharavi’s history—while Reuters has a timeline. CNN has a good overview of the concerns surrounding the redevelopment project. Local Housing Solutions explains TDR—and how they are supposed to work. Hindustan Times reports on how they actually work in this case. Land Conflict Watch has the data on evictions, while The Wire and Indian Express report on the plan to shift residents to the garbage dump. Times of India reports on life in Dharavi today and the skyrocketing real estate prices that will be triggered by the redevelopment.
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