“ I have nothing personal against Lok Group (the developers), but I do believe that it’s extremely important to nip another mill lands or Crawford Market type of controversy in the bud,” says the strongly-worded letter. It goes on to state that since this redevelopment is potentially much bigger than the Dharavi redevelopment, mill lands or anything Mumbai has ever seen, the CM should appoint MHADA or any other capable department as the nodal agency. This agency can then co-ordinate with the BMC, state and the tenants before inviting tenders from different developers for the various components of the project.

Deora, who has asked for an appointment with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to discuss the issue, said, “Tendering it out will fetch the government higher revenue. The government should act like an aggregator like in the SEZ model since cluster redevelopment involves issues like zoning, open spaces, amenities like hospitals.” Deora added that this way the government will have more control to ensure certain safeguards.

“Since this is the redevelopment of an entire civic ward, a lot of land belongs to the state government or the BMC. The state should take the lead and carry out the redevelopment through a state agency or by appointing a private developer through a proper process,” said Surendra Shrivastav from the citizens’ group Loksatta, which is one of the NGOs willing to meet the CM on the issue.

Developers Lok Group had announced its plans to redevelop about 2,202 buildings located in 212 acres of the crowded C-ward (Bhuleshwar) area. In its publicity campaigns and public meets, including the one attended by hundreds of local traders, residents along with a few elected representatives and association heads last month, the developers claimed that they had the backing of over 40 NGOs and other organisations for the project.

“I spoke to some of the prominent citizens whose names figure in the list and many of them denied being associated with the project in any way,” Deora added.

According to Mayank Gandhi, director of Lok group and secretary of the ROMF, under 33/7, any developer can submit a redevelopment proposal if he has the consent of the landowner and tenants. “Tendering is required only when the land belongs to the state. In this case, 80% of the land, except for the roads and a few open spaces, is privately owned. Hence the government is not much of a stakeholder,” said Gandhi.

He added that initial presentations were made to NGOs before their names were included. “Recently, the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) wrote to us stating that they do not want to be associated with the federation. Others can do the same if they want,” he added.