LEDC city case study: Mumbai

Mumbai
1
Mumbai is situated on the Salsette Island on the west
coast of India. Most of Mumbai’s area sits just above
sea level.

Bordering the Arabian Sea as well as the fact that it is

located between Europe and Singapore, is what made
Mumbai so important to India’s economy. Its port
handles over half of India’s maritime cargo and the
whole city generates about 40% of the countries profits.

With its neighbouring suburbs, Mumbai forms the

world’s 4th largest agglomeration. The conurbation
could be divided into four main parts: the Mumbai city,
Mumbai suburban district, but also the two cities of Navi Mumbai and
Thane.

Even though it is not the capital, it still is India’s commercial and

entertainment centre as well as it is the home of many important financial
institutions e.g. the Bombay stock exchange. Almost 200 out of India’s top
500 companies located their headquarters in Mumbai therefore only
increasing its importance.

However what’s more important is that Mumbai is a city of contrast. On

one side there are rich multinational companies and five star hotels, and in
the middle of all this, in the heart of Mumbai lies Asia’s biggest slum;
Dharavi.

The slum is a result of mass migrations to

Mumbai which occurred in the last
century as well as the result of the
natural increase. It is estimated that
during the years 1991- 2001 the number
of migrants coming into Mumbai was 1.12
million. In 2001 according to the census
the population of Mumbai was
11,914,398. In 2008 Mumbai had a
population of 13,662,885 while the
population of the whole metropolitan area
would be somewhere closer to
20,870,764 (World Gazetteer). The population density is estimated to be
22,000 people per square kilometre.

Even though the population growth might seem to be high when

compared to other Indian cities it is quite slow. While Mumbai’s growth

2
rate is 8.5%, just 250 km away from this city lays another city with the
population growth of 11.5%.

As India still is a developing country, the city was not prepared for such
huge numbers and still like any developing country it is trying to cope with
its problems. With so many people poor people coming in from other parts
of India and minimum available space the result was the formation of
Dharavi which continued to grow ever since.

According to the 2001 census, almost 54.1% of the population of Mumbai

lives in slums. More than two million people do not have access to a toilet
and six million people go without having clean drinking water and all this
takes place not that far from the richest areas in Mumbai.

Dharavi
As I already mentioned before, Dharavi is located
in the centre of Mumbai approximately 11
kilometres to the north of the CBD. Covering an
area of about 212 hectares, it is located between
the two major railway lines: Western and Central
Railways. Due to the fact that it lies close to the
Mithi River, Dharavi is extremely vulnerable
during the wet seasons when floods come.

No one really knows for sure how many people

live in Dharavi, but it is now predicted that the
population is something slightly over 1 million
people. In the expensive CBD of Mumbai, Dharavi
offers a cheap alternative to the poor who usually
came from other parts of India in search of better
living conditions and jobs.

The cheapness however can be seen on the quality of

life. Up to 800 people are forced to share one toilet,
children can be seen playing among rubbish, clean
drinking water is scarce, and up to 10 people are forced
to squeeze in one room sometimes. However it is
important to say that not always are the conditions as
bad. Even some of the smallest flats are usually
equipped with a stove, and many have a small colour television. Of course
this would be available only to those residents which are lucky to be
situated in one of the areas which has constant electricity supply.

3
Originally a mangrove swamp in the late nineteenth century inhabited
mainly by fisherman, Dharavi is now a community full of small scale
industries and businesses. It is estimated that there
are about 15,000 single room factories. The annual
turnover of these small scale businesses is estimated
to be more than $ 650 million a year.

Among the typical business for Dharavi

which would include pottery, and many
textile industries, Dharavi started to work
more and more in the recycling industry.
They recycle anything from plastic cardboard and paper to
soap and candles. This recycling sector employs about
200,000 people.

It is important to realise that even though Dharavi is a shanty town it still

is very important for India’s economy and the whole nation. The people
living in Dharavi are trying to make the best possible out of what they
have been given.

With the government’s plans on redeveloping the whole region and

transforming Dharavi the main question that Dharavi faces now is how
long will this actually last?

Dharavi redevelopment project

The Dharavi redevelopment project,
sometimes also called “Vision Mumbai”
was designed by an architect Mukesh
Mehta. The predicted cost of this project
is $2.3 billion.

The aim of this project is to redevelop

the whole region basically meaning that
all the slums will be destroyed and
instead of them a completely new
region will be built mainly containing
high rise buildings and commercial centres for the rich people. Part of the
plan is also to build new housing for the current Dharavi inhabitants.

The project aims to build wider roads, ample the

water supply, built playgrounds, schools and
colleges as well as medical centres and socio-
cultural centres. In order for the project to function

4
Dharavi has been divided into ten parts, and each part will de developed
by a different group of developers.

At the beginning of the project it was hoping to be done in 5 -7 years

therefore somewhere around the year 2013. Due to the financial crisis
which is taking place now it is questionable whether or not the project will
be done or even happening. As a result of the “credit crunch” most
partners and investors are starting to withdraw from the project.

What is unique about this project is the fact that it does not rely on
government funds or international aid, rather India’s private sector. The
main factor pushing this project into implementation is of course money.

It is planned that while the slums are being demolished and Dharavi is
being re-constructed the slum dwellers will be provided with transit
tenements located close to Dharavi. The developer should pay the rent but
the people will have to pay for the water, electricity or telephone.

After Dharavi has been redeveloped, the sum dweller whose name
appears in the voters list from 1.1.1995 onwards will be provided with a
house of 225 sq. ft. carpet area with a attached toilet and bathroom. As
well as that the government aims to legalise some of the small industries
and business to help the Dharavi people to start a new life.

Therefore theoretically everyone wins. Practically the project faces many

difficulties.

Similar projects like this have already been seen in India and none worked
out well. About 55 years ago all the dwellers from Matunga and Sion were
relocated to Janata colony in Chembur. As the colony grew larger the
people were yet again forced out by the Atomic Energy commission this
time they were relocated into the Cheetah camp where during the
monsoon season everything got flooded. Nowadays both the Janata and
Cheetah colony thriving with life but they
had to develop on their own.

Many of the slum dwellers are already

opposing the project. Many are angry
about the fact that they were not consulted
at all, others do not want the aspect of
slum life to be lost and say that the
government is not doing all this for the
people living in Dharavi. Some families
which already have been moved actually
say that they had much more space in
their original slum than they have now in the new place.
5
Another fact that greatly worries the slum inhabitants is that it will not be
possible to run the small scale business in tower blocks. Nowadays in
Dharavi most of the people live on the upper floor of their shack and work
in the basement. Moving them to the tower blocks will cause that people
will lose their jobs; this will not help them in any way but do the opposite.
What will happen and is starting to happen is that some of the people who
have been moved to better buildings are renting the places to make
money and they themselves are building slums in a different place. Isn’t
the Dharavi redevelopment project than only creating new slums?

The project had a bad start from the beginning no one really knows for
sure how many people are living in Dharavi and out of the project
architects no did bother to find out. The project is being done without
knowing how many people are staying in Dharavi everyone is only working
with estimates which talk about 57,000 families.

Another important factor that has to be considered is that Dharavi is now

an economy functioning on its own. It will not be easy to replace this as
well as Dharavi’s contribution to the economy and environment of
Mumbai. It might seem easy to provide housing for the people but who will
provide these people with their daily wage that they had back in Dharavi?

Conclusion
As the Dharavi redevelopment project is the only solution which has been
thought of there really is no other option. Even though the thought of the
project was not triggered by the aim to help the people but because
Mumbai is short of space at least there is something being done.

I do not think that it the best possible solution. You cannot just decide one
day to move a million people without actually knowing the proper number
and expect them to adapt. It is not possible to do without severe
consequences but then again once these people do not pose a mediate
threat to Mumbai’s future development will the government care?