India’s Gautam Adani Wants to Redevelop Giant Slum From ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Billionaire’s Adani Properties is expected to get contract to replace narrow streets and shanties of Dharavi in centre of Mumbai
7 min
MUMBAI—Billionaire Gautam Adani has become India’s largest airport operator. He runs coal mines and the country’s largest private port. Now he has set his sights on a massive redevelopment of India’s most iconic slum.
Dharavi, a slum in the centre of Mumbai, gained international fame after being featured in the 2008 Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire.” It was well known to many Indians long before that, and the city of Mumbai has had plans to replace its shanties with gleaming high-rises for nearly 20 years.
The complexities of relocating the estimated one million people who live and work in an area about two-thirds the size of New York’s Central Park have so far thwarted those efforts. Dharavi is a city within a city. Redeveloping it in the middle of Mumbai will be akin to razing a section of Manhattan—but a far more densely packed version.
The developer will need to house all of those people during construction. Businesses will be disrupted. There will be disagreements about compensation. Protests are expected. Costs will mount.
Thousands of people who live on rent in Dharavi fear that once high-rises come up, the rents will rise sharply, forcing them to move out. “They will remove the poor, not the poverty,” said Mohammed Giasuddin Riaz Ansari, a 46-year-old who has lived in Dharavi for more than 20 years.
Mr. Ansari shares a 300-square-foot rented room with 14 men of his extended family, and makes a living selling toys and balloons in the lanes of Dharavi. He said he manages to save $25 to $35 a month to send to his wife and five children who live in a village in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. If he has to relocate, he said he would have to build his clientele from scratch. “For anyone with a business, this is not good,” he said.
Mr. Adani, who runs a business empire ranging from infrastructure to energy, has had his hands full lately with a dispute of an entirely different nature. His conglomerate, Adani Group, has come under tremendous market pressure since U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research alleged stock price manipulation in its listed companies. The Adani Group has disputed the allegations, but seven listed Adani companies have lost more than $100 billion in stock market capitalisation since the report came out. Adani and his family members said they have prepaid nearly $2 billion of loans since February.
Some of those wary of the redevelopment have questioned whether the financial pressure on Mr. Adani will strain his ability to finish such a massive project. “How will he do it? Who will give him the money?” said Raju Korde, an activist who has in the past protested against Dharavi redevelopment plans.
Mr. Korde said those who live in the slum worry that if Mr. Adani runs out of money and the project drags on for years, many in the slum will get fed up and leave, something that has happened in other redevelopment projects. “There are thousands of people in Mumbai who have given up their rights,” said Mr. Korde. If need be, those who live in Dharavi will protest, he said.
City officials aren’t concerned about Mr. Adani’s ability to finance the project, said S.V.R. Srinivas, metropolitan commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, a government body in charge of infrastructure development. The city estimates the redevelopment project could end up costing more than 200 billion rupees, equivalent to $2.4 billion.
Adani Properties Pvt., a unit of Adani Group, made the highest bid for an initial investment of about $615 million for the redevelopment, and the government is expected to formally award the contract to the company soon, Mr. Srinivas said. The developer would be responsible for any additional costs required to complete the project.
“It will be a first huge step toward slum-free Mumbai,” Mr. Srinivas said. The government has been trying to find a developer who would take on the work since 2004 but hasn’t been able to find them because of the complexity of the project, he said.
Slums such as Dharavi have flourished in large cities of many developing countries, where people come from rural areas to look for work but don’t find affordable housing. More than one billion people live in slums worldwide; in India, they make up half of the urban population, according to the World Bank.
Homes in Dharavi are so densely packed that they are separated by winding lanes barely 3 feet wide in many places. On a recent afternoon, children played in the lanes, rats scurried along the sides, and women sat on the doorsteps of windowless homes.
A typical home in Dharavi is just a room, about 10 feet by 12 square feet, with anywhere from two to five residents. They rely on public toilets, with 50 to 60 people on average per toilet, according to some estimates. Some homes are made of corrugated metal sheets and tarpaulin, but many residents have invested to build concrete walls and roofs. As families have grown, they have built rooms on top of existing ones, using scrap materials, wood and plastic.
The redevelopment plan requires that the builder make new homes, with more space and private toilets, and give them free to those who meet the government’s eligibility criteria, which includes, among other things, that they must have been living in a Dharavi home that existed before Jan. 1, 2000. In addition, Dharavi will get wider roads and be hooked up to utilities such as water, gas and a sewage system, according to the government’s tender.
In return, the developer gets the right to build residential and commercial buildings on prime real estate. Next door to Dharavi is the Bandra-Kurla complex, one of India’s most expensive office markets, where the U.S. Consulate is located and global banks such as Standard Chartered PLC and BNP Paribas SA have offices.
The new homes for those who live in Dharavi must be ready within seven years under the government’s plan, while the developer has 18 years to build the commercial and residential property that will be sold on the open market, said Mr. Srinivas.
Local real-estate experts say these timelines are ambitious. “It is not going to be a cakewalk that they will start and everything is…smooth,” said Pankaj Kapoor, founder of Liases Foras Real Estate Rating and Research Pvt in Mumbai. “There would be agitations, there would be resolutions, and then it will take its own prolonged time.”
Beyond the complexities of compensating and housing Dharavi’s people, the project is also facing legal challenges. In 2019, a consortium led by a Dubai-based company, Seclink Technologies Corp., won a bidding process for Dharavi’s redevelopment. The government later canceled that tender, saying there had been a material change in the circumstances of the plan. The government put out a new tender last year. Seclink has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging the cancellation of the tender awarded to it.
Last month, several opposition party leaders alleged, in a letter to a federal law-enforcement agency, that awarding the project to Adani Properties is an example of how companies owned by the Indian billionaire have “exercised improper influence to obtain concessions and contracts from governments.”
A spokesman for Adani Group said that Adani Properties won the right to redevelop Dharavi through an open and transparent bidding process.
Some longtime residents welcome the redevelopment plan, hoping it will lead to a cleaner, safer Dharavi. “If it is improved, how nice it will be,” said Rekha Deepak Gade, a 41-year-old single mother who lives with four children in a 100-square-foot room.
But many are worried about what the project portends for their future.
Malliga Gunashekaran, 47, who moved in 2008 to her current home in Dharavi, where she lives with her husband, son and mother-in-law, said she isn’t sure if they meet the eligibility criteria to get a free home. “There is tension,” she said.
Yusuf Galwani runs a family business with his two brothers in Dharavi, where they make earthenware by hand. His grandfather started out as a clay potter in Dharavi more than 100 years ago. He and his brothers have expanded the workshop in the space-starved slum by building one floor on top of another. They have built a kiln to fire the pottery on the fourth floor. They fear they may not get this much space in a redevelopment.
Mr. Galwani said that over the years he and his brothers have refused lucrative job offers, to continue their family craft. They want to expand their grandfather’s business to greater heights and can’t imagine doing it anywhere else, he said.
“We don’t want to leave Dharavi,” he said. “Our hearts won’t allow it.”
Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
BNW Developments has established a Sydney presence, joining Arada and Sobha Realty among the growing number of UAE developers pursuing Australian buyers and development opportunities.
Australian shares fell on Thursday as Wall Street weakness, rising oil and persistent rate concerns weighed on most of the market. The S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.72 per cent to 8,702. The All Ordinaries lost 0.66 per cent to finish at 8,897. Mining stocks were hit particularly hard, while real estate also dragged on the index. …
Continue reading “ASX falls 0.7 per cent as miners and property stocks retreat”
A vibrant 1954 Palm Springs home featuring eight colorful murals by late artist Shawn Savage is on the market for $2.295 million. The 2,237-square-foot property features bold hot-pink doors, three bedrooms, a pool, mountain views and playful interiors blending modern glamour with classic Palm Springs style.
3 min
A bold 1950s home in Palm Springs, California, adorned with eight colorful murals by the late artist Shawn Savage, is coming to market ahead of the city’s annual Modernism Week.
The white stucco home on El Camino Way, built in 1954 and recently renovated, has an asking price of $2.295 million. Its staggered facade features three playfully abstract murals on either side of double-height hot pink doors.
MORE: Megamansion Outside Princeton, N.J., With a Pub and Two-Story Library Heads to Auction
The sellers are Los Angeles-based partners John Freeman and Mathieu Faure, who knew it was “the one” when they saw it after several months of searching in the winter of 2023. “It’s a happy house,” Freeman said. “We really liked the feel of the house: the uniqueness, the openness, the brightness—and the art.”
Located in the Mesa neighborhood of Palm Springs, which backs up to the San Jacinto Mountains, the 2,237-square-foot house features three bedrooms, an angled bonus room and a yard with a pool, desert mountain views and another colorful mural running alongside the pool.
“I never thought in my life I would have a house with pink doors,” said Faure, a producer at Apple TV who is originally from Paris. “It’s so colorful, it’s so different. And so Palm Springs.”
The layout of the home creates a smooth flow from the front doors through the open-plan common area—a foyer, bar, and living and dining room—into the kitchen around a fireplace wall and out to the yard. A corridor leads to a private bedroom wing, where the primary suite has floor-to-ceiling windows and the primary bath is only a tad smaller than the bedroom.
Faure has filled the home with Jonathan Adler furniture, rugs and accessories, riffing on the energetic California vibes of the house to create an aesthetic of “modern American glamour,” he said.
“It was enjoyable for me to play with different types of furniture and make this house ‘happy chic,’ as I describe it,” he said.
MORE: Beverly Hills Villa of Late Philanthropist Glorya Kaufman Sells for $19.25 Million
“He did a fantastic job,” said Freeman, who is an attorney and consultant. “It does kind of bring a smile to my face whenever I walk into the house.”
Since the furniture and decor were chosen for the particularities of the space, the couple is open to selling them with the home. Their West Hollywood house is already furnished; the collection doesn’t match the vibes of a Houston loft they bought near family; and Faure can’t imagine these pieces in New York—where he’s lived in the past—he said.
The duo bought the Palm Springs house for $1.925 million in 2024, according to property records, and will list the home Monday. They are represented by Stewart Smith, Patrick Jordan and Kevin Stanley of Bennion Deville Homes/Luxury Portfolio International.
The previous owners had purchased the home in 2021 for $975,000 and then spent more than two years and $700,000 on the renovation, according to Realtor.com. They commissioned Savage, a local Palm Springs artist and painter known for his joyful abstract work, to decorate the home.
MORE: Alpine Villa From Lady Gaga Movie ‘House of Gucci’ Lists for €2.9 Million
Savage, who died in 2024, lived in the Coachella Valley from 2003, and his work can be found in various local institutions and is on exhibit at the Illumine Gallery in Palm Springs. “Some artists pass through a place. Shawn Savage became a part of it,” the gallery’s description states.
Unsurprisingly, the murals invite lots of friendly conversations, as well as guided tours and interested lookers, but never to a degree that it disturbed the peacefulness of their home or the neighborhood, the sellers said. “It felt like living in an art gallery, and you have the exterior that you would share with the world,” Faure explained.
The neighborhood also played a role in their decision to buy, because of its access to the hiking trails of the San Jacinto Mountains, the lack of through-roads and the neighborly environment.
“It’s a very friendly place,” Faure said.
Victorian auction buyers will soon receive a piece of information that has traditionally been withheld until bidding reaches it: the vendor’s reserve price. Under new property-sale and underquoting laws, agents must publish the agreed reserve at least seven days before an auction or fixed-date sale. Most changes begin on 1 October 2026 and apply to …
Continue reading “Victoria’s New Auction Rules Will Force Reserve Prices Into the Open”
The Perpetual Padellone draws its name from the coveted reference 8171 while introducing an instantaneous complete annual calendar to Rolex’s modern Perpetual collection.
