Mumbai’s Dharavi, as the deadline to submit ownership documents for eligibility in the city’s largest redevelopment project officially closed on April 15.
These families, who did not respond to either the household survey or the extended submission period, now risk exclusion from the ambitious housing-for-all initiative that promises to transform one of Asia’s largest informal settlements. Navbharat Mega Developers Private Limited, the special purpose vehicle executing the project in partnership with the Adani Group and the Government of Maharashtra, confirmed it will now begin evaluating submitted records and prepare a draft Annexure-II listing eligible tenements. Those labelled “documents not received” will face uncertain prospects, as officials hinted that only a special directive in the future might reopen the window for document submission. The government’s intent to prioritise planned urban renewal with minimal disputes is now colliding with ground-level complexities of identity, documentation, and trust.
Dharavi’s dense urban fabric has long posed challenges to redevelopment, and this phase marks a turning point in determining who benefits from the much-promised housing, infrastructure and socioeconomic upliftment. According to officials associated with the project, over 94,500 structures have been assigned unique IDs, of which 89,000 have been digitally mapped and 70,000 tenements fully surveyed. Yet, tens of thousands of families have either remained unresponsive or are caught in the limbo of informal tenancies without official documentation. The project’s scale and intent—offering formal housing to eligible residents, many of whom have lived in substandard conditions for decades—has been widely projected as a model for inclusive urban development. However, the mechanisms of verification are proving to be a double-edged sword. While they aim to bring transparency and equity to a notoriously opaque real estate ecosystem, they also risk marginalising the most vulnerable—those without access to legal documentation, those unaware of government notifications, or those simply unable to complete the process within stipulated timelines.
Officials involved in the door-to-door survey maintain that data collection is still ongoing in pockets where tenements are numbered but inputs remain incomplete. The state has insisted the objective remains to ensure no genuine resident is left behind. However, the tightening of deadlines suggests a push to streamline project execution and avoid delays. Whether future interventions will allow excluded families a second chance is yet to be seen. As Mumbai embarks on one of its most ambitious redevelopment drives in decades, the Dharavi project is both a symbol of possibility and a test of intent. The success of this initiative will not only depend on its engineering and financial execution but on its capacity to deliver dignity, fairness and a real sense of belonging to all those who have long called Dharavi home.
Dharavi faces eligibility crunch deadline
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