Dharavi redevelopment

What is the Dharavi Redevelopment Project?

A state plan to rebuild Dharavi as a planned township, handed in 2023 to a joint company that is 80% Adani Group and 20% Government of Maharashtra.

The plan dates from a government resolution of 4 February 2004. An earlier tender, won by SecLink in 2019, was cancelled. In the re-tender, Adani Properties bid Rs 5,069 crore in November 2022 and was awarded the contract in July 2023. The special purpose vehicle has changed its name twice: Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd, then Navbharat Mega Developers in December 2024, and now Adani Navbharat Developers (Adani, Oct 2026).

The state body is the DRP, under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority. Officials say about 1 million residents will be rehoused in 1.25 to 1.5 lakh new homes, with 95 million sq ft of rehab housing to be built before 130 million sq ft of saleable space.

Who owns Dharavi?

The government, mostly. About half the land belongs to the city corporation (BMC), and the rest to the state and central governments, including Indian Railways.

Housing minister Ashish Shelar told the state assembly in March 2025 that about 50% of the land is owned by the BMC and the rest by the state and central governments, and that "not an inch" had been given to Adani: the land vests with the DRP (PTI via The Week). Those are a minister's words; critics argue the developer gains the value through building rights instead.

Railway land is part of it: the first rehab towers sit on a 22-acre railway plot at Matunga, and railway staff get the first flats there. Kumbharwada's potters hold their land on an old lease, said by one magazine to end in 2032.

Will Dharavi be demolished?

In stages, yes. The plan is to build rehab towers first and then clear and rebuild Dharavi sector by sector over about 17 years. Demolition has begun in Sector 6.

By 6 August 2026, in Sector 6 (Meghwadi and Ganesh Nagar, about 3,500 homes on railway land), 890 tenements had been vacated and 379 structures demolished, with a 36-storey rehab building under construction (Free Press Journal). Sectors 6 and 1 go first.

Most of Dharavi will look as it does now for years. The workshops, Kumbharwada and the residential lanes that tours visit are still in use in October 2026.

What is the redevelopment timeline?

Planned since 2004, awarded in 2023, surveyed in 2025, and building since 2026. The first rehab flats are due in March 2029.

Key dates from official releases and news reports:

Sources: SRA, The Tribune, Free Press Journal and Adani.

Who gets a new home, and where?

Residents of homes from before 1 January 2000 get a free 350 sq ft flat inside Dharavi. Those from 2000 to 2011 can buy a 300 sq ft home, mostly outside. Later arrivals go to rental housing.

• Before 1 Jan 2000: free 350 sq ft flat in Dharavi, with two toilets, if found eligible.
• 1 Jan 2000 to 1 Jan 2011: a 300 sq ft home for Rs 2.5 lakh, outside Dharavi according to Business Standard and The Tribune (one 2026 report says inside; it is disputed).
• Upper-floor tenements: 300 sq ft under a hire-purchase scheme, on rent for 12 years.
• 2011 to 15 Nov 2022, and others ineligible: rental or hire-purchase housing outside Dharavi, on land such as the 118 acres at Malvani in Malad.

In the first eligibility list, for Sector 6, 229 of 505 tenements were found eligible: 76.6% of the 299 assessed, about 45% of the total (The Tribune). The gap between those numbers is at the heart of the protests.

Hear how the redevelopment looks from the lanes, with a local guide; the listing offers short and long options.

★ 4.9 · 2 to 7 hours · from $5

Explore the local-guide walk → Tour details

What are the Matunga rehab towers?

The first ten rehab buildings, 37 to 39 floors each, on a 22-acre railway plot at Matunga, with 10,432 flats of 350 sq ft and 1,379 shops and workshops.

Ground was broken on 12 October 2026. Adani's release gives the handover schedule as five towers by March 2029, two by August 2029 and three by August 2030. Railway staff get the first allotments. The designers named include Sasaki, Buro Happold and Hafeez Contractor.

Ten days earlier, the chief minister opened the 22,500 sq ft Dharavi Experience Centre with sample flats. The chief minister said in July 2026 that 10,000 rehab homes would be ready in about 18 months; the official schedule above is later.

Who opposes the Dharavi redevelopment?

Opposition parties, many residents and some businesses. The main fears are eligibility, rehousing outside Dharavi and losing workshops that need ground-floor space.

Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress oppose the project as handed to Adani; Congress protested in June 2025 over the transfer of the Mother Dairy plot in Kurla. SecLink's case against the tender is still pending in the Supreme Court, which refused to stop the work in 2025 and ordered payments through a single bank account.

For residents, the question is practical. A family whose business is on the ground floor, or who arrived after 2000, may lose either the workshop or the right to stay in Dharavi. Potters in Kumbharwada need kilns, not flats. The film Kaala (2018), about a land grab in Dharavi, shows how political the issue is.

What does the redevelopment mean for visitors?

Little for now: tours run as before. Over the next decade, the walks will change as sectors are rebuilt.

Guides talk about the project openly, and it is worth asking yours what neighbours think. Do not visit to see Dharavi "before it disappears". It will be a working neighbourhood for years, and that framing is the kind of voyeurism residents dislike.

Expect construction around the Matunga railway land and in Sector 6, which you may see from the train. For context before you go, read the Dharavi facts and the ethics guide.

A guide who explains the redevelopment from both sides, in a group of six, with cameras left behind.

★ 4.9 · 2.5 to 3.5 hours · from $20

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