Another ‘millionaire’ ditches slumdogs

The Rs 15,000-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) — aimed at rehousing approximately 57,000 slum families into free 300-sq foot flats — has received another setback with one more bidder backing out of the scheme to redevelop the country’s largest slum. Property developer Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), which had partnered with the beleaguered Lehman Brothers for the project, recently opted out of it, citing liquidity crunch and lack of clarity. The ambitious project, in which property developers could exploit the special floor space index of 4 for commercial development, had garnered enough attention as it originally aimed to produce 5 million sq ft of new office and residential space in the short term and as much as 40 million sq ft over seven years. “Though we had technically qualified for the scheme, it was becoming unviable for us to continue with the project. Also a few questions around the area calculation per flat remained unanswered,” Sarang Wadhawan, managing director of HDIL said that the firm’s margins would have been severely hit had they continued with the project. HDIL is now focusing on rehabilitation and resettlement of slums around Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), for which it bagged the contract in October, 2007. The last six months saw the exit of four bidders — including L&T-Godrej Properties consortium, a Reliance Engineering-led group, Dubai-based Limitless LLC — from the project. The last three months also witnessed DLF (who had earlier partnered with Limitless LLC) joining hands with Akruti City Limited. The officer on special duty for DRP, however, played down news of the exodus, stating that he still has adequate numbers to pull on the project. “Of the 19 bidders shortlisted, only four have backed out. We are in a good situation with 14 players still in the fray after the DLF-Akruti City tie up. We will eventually need only five developers to commence the project,” Gautam Chatterjee, officer on special duty for DRP, said. On the deadline for the project, Chatterjee said that rehabilitation and resettlement of five lakh slum-dwellers was a mammoth task and could not be constrained by a deadline. The project, supposed to start in December, 2007, has not yet begun.