Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai: Uddhav Thackeray, the chief of Shiv Sena (UBT), announced on Saturday that his party would annul the tender for the Dharavi slum redevelopment project if it secures power in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.
Addressing the media, Thackeray criticized the redevelopment scheme, questioning, “Is this Dharavi redevelopment or ‘Ladka Mitra Yojna’ (favourite friend scheme)?” He further stated, “We will not approve additional sops and will call for a fresh tender if needed after forming the government.”
The Dharavi redevelopment project, a significant multi-crore initiative, involves the Adani group as the developer. Contrary to earlier claims, the project does not involve land transfers to Adani but rather requires them to build housing for Maharashtra’s government departments to allocate to residents of Asia’s largest slum.
Earlier this month, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan labeled the project a “big scam” and demanded a comprehensive report from the Maharashtra government. Chavan suggested that the project would be scrapped if the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comes to power in October’s elections.
Chavan questioned the transparency of the project, noting discrepancies such as the recent transfer of land in Kurla for redevelopment, which he claimed was not detailed in the original tender. He raised concerns about potential revenue losses and alleged that government land was being undervalued for industrialists.
In response to the controversy, Revenue Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil promised that a white paper detailing the tender process would be released to address these concerns.
