Dharavi redevelopment: October 2026

What changed in Dharavi's redevelopment in 2026?

Four things: demolition began in Sector 6, Malad land was handed over, the Experience Centre opened, and construction started on the first rehab towers.

The year ran in this order. None of these steps is the big one people picture, a whole neighbourhood vanishing at once. The plan is phased: build rehab towers first, move one sector at a time, then clear and rebuild. 2026 is the year the first sector moved.

The dates below come from official releases and Mumbai's business press. Where two outlets disagree on a figure, we give the lower one and say so further down.

What is happening in Sector 6 and Meghwadi?

Sector 6 is the first part of Dharavi being cleared. By early August 2026, 890 tenements had been vacated and 379 structures demolished.

Sector 6 covers railway land around Meghwadi and Ganesh Nagar, with about 3,500 hutments, according to the Free Press Journal (6 August 2026). It was also the subject of the first eligibility list, published in July 2025. The same report says a 36-storey rehab building was under construction.

Other outlets give bigger numbers. A property news site reported a day later that more than 2,200 residential units in Sector 6 had been vacated. The gap probably comes from counting tenements, rooms and structures differently. Either way, the families who moved out went to transit housing or took monthly rent support until the new buildings are ready, and some households were still negotiating over flat size and the location of temporary homes.

For a visitor this is the part to handle with care. A cleared plot is somebody's former home. Your guide decides where the group walks; do not ask to detour to a demolition site for a look.

What is being built at Matunga, and when will the first homes be ready?

Ten towers of 37 to 39 storeys with 10,432 flats of 350 sq ft. The first five are due in March 2029, the last three in August 2030.

The bhoomi poojan on 12 October 2026 was performed by Pranav Adani on a 22-acre railway plot at Matunga, just outside Dharavi. The Adani release lists 10,432 rehab apartments of 350 sq ft and 1,379 commercial and industrial units. Eligible residents of Sectors 6 and 1 get the first keys. Nearly 4,500 further flats follow for other eligible residents.

Treat the dates as targets. The handover is to the state body (DRP/SRA), not to residents directly, and Mumbai's large housing projects have a habit of slipping.

What is the Dharavi Experience Centre, and can visitors go?

It is a 22,500 sq ft centre with life-size sample flats, built for residents. We could not confirm that it admits tourists.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis opened the centre on Gandhi Jayanti, 2 October 2026. According to Business Today, it has furnished and unfurnished sample flats of 350 and 500 sq ft, a 3D walkthrough of the planned township, exhibits on Dharavi's history and trades, and help desks for surveys, eligibility and paperwork.

Neither the press release nor the news reports give an address or public opening hours. Its stated purpose is to help residents understand what they are being offered. We would not plan a trip around it. If you are curious, ask your guide on the day; Dharavi guides follow the project closely, and their view is more useful than a showroom.

Where will residents who do not qualify for a Dharavi home go?

To rental or hire-purchase housing outside Dharavi. The first big parcel is 118 acres at Malvani, Malad, handed over in February 2026.

Residents on the ground floor before 1 January 2000 qualify for a free 350 sq ft flat inside the project. Later arrivals and many upper-floor tenants do not, and they are to be housed elsewhere in the city. On 23 February 2026 the state transferred 118 acres at Mukteshwar, Malvani to the SRA for them, and has identified about 540 acres across the region in total, including salt-pan land and a Deonar dumping-ground site, per PTI's report.

Malad is in the northern suburbs, far from Dharavi's workshops. That distance sits at the heart of the opposition: Dharavi's workshops depend on homes and work being in the same lane. A Pulitzer Center report from April 2026 says Kumbharwada, the potters' quarter, was one of the few areas to refuse the survey collectively. One community leader told the reporter: "If the business moves out, it will be the end of Kumbharwada."

Who is building it now, and is the Supreme Court case still open?

The project company is now called Adani Navbharat Developers (ANDPL), 80% Adani and 20% the state. The tender challenge is still before the Supreme Court.

The special purpose vehicle began as Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd, became Navbharat Mega Developers in December 2024, and appears as Adani Navbharat Developers Pvt Ltd in the October 2026 release. We could not find the date of the second rename. The state's own body, the DRP under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority, is run by CEO Dr Mahendra Kalyankar.

In March 2025 the Supreme Court refused to stay the project and ordered payments routed through a single bank account. The appeal by SecLink, the Dubai-backed firm whose 2019 tender was cancelled, was heard again in September 2026 without any interim order. As of 22 October 2026 we found no final ruling. A verdict against the tender could change who builds, though work on the ground continues meanwhile.

What it means for visitors this season is simpler than the politics. The walks still run: Reality Tours lists its Dharavi tour as daily. Guides now spend part of the walk on the redevelopment, and you will hear a range of views from residents. Expect routes to shift around fenced or cleared plots, keep cameras away unless your operator allows them, and treat construction zones as off limits. Our guide to the ethics of a Dharavi walk covers the wider question.

Small groups, a strict no-camera rule, and guides who explain the redevelopment from a Dharavi point of view.

★ 4.9 · 2.5 to 3.5 hours · from $20

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