The ten-member expert committee, comprising retired IAS officials, urban planners, activists and architects, had on Tuesday sent a missive to the CM voicing stiff opposition to the DRP in its present form i.e. getting private developers to construct free homes for slumdwellers in lieu of permission to construct extra flats that the developers can sell in the open market.

Dismissing arguments by authorities that giving incentives to developers has been the standard  model followed in most public housing schemes including the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme, committee member and former state chief secretary DM Sukhtankar said, “Just because we commit one wrong in the past, it cannot be used to justify all other wrongs. It is a political decision, unique to Mumbai, to impose a FSI of 4 and give away so much land for commercial exploitation by developers, all just to meet the cost of free housing.”

Sukhtankar said the government’s pre-election haste to approve the developers’ plans prompted the committee — that was so long been working closely with the government on the project— to take this drastic step. “We are not saying that self-redevelopment is easy but the state government should test a pilot project, say in a 10-acre slum pocket. All slumdwellers here should be given land on lease and based on a masterplan allowed to take up self-redevelopment with technical and financial assistance from the government in the form of affordable credit,” he said.

Under the DRP, about 30 lakh sq mt of built-up space will be used for rehabilitating slumdwellers while another 40 lakh sq mt will be available for developers as the free-for-sale component.

The committee’s vehement opposition to the project has come as a surprise for the authorities, especially as the state government is set to finalise the bidders on July 20. Officials state that they have kept the committee in the loop during each and every meeting with the 14 shortlisted developers. A standardized master plan to bring technical uniformity in the bidding process was also prepared based on guidelines recommended by the expert committee. This plan was presented before the committee in the last meeting of the DRP in May. The minutes of this meeting, released this Tuesday, addresses the very concerns that have now been raised by the committee.

The master plan for the 151-hectare Dharavi presented at the meeting envisages Ground + 14 storey towers for rehabilitation of the locals. These towers would be built over two levels of podiums each 14 feet high used for housing existing commercial establishments at Dharavi.