Existing industrial units in Dharavi in Mumbai will get more space apart from a common facility centre and tax sops for five years as part of the area's redevelopment plan, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday.
Dharavi, located in the central part of the country's financial capital and among the biggest slum clusters in the world, is a hub for several small-scale, unorganised industries that manufacture medicines, leather, footwear, clothes etc.
Replying to a calling attention motion in the Assembly, Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio in the state government, said 59,165 families will be rehabilitated, of which 46,191 are residential and 12,974 non-residential.
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He said the government will undertake rental housing for the families who are ineligible for rehabilitation. Dharavi is a business hub and its redevelopment is not possible if the economic activity there is ignored, Fadnavis said. While executing the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan, the area's economic contribution to Mumbai and Maharashtra has to be kept in mind, he asserted.
"This is why we have created an industrial and business zone. And the benefit of the industrial and business zone is that it will have common facility centre. They will be given more space than what they have with improved conditions," he said.
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Referring to the Goods and Services Tax, he said taxes will be waived for five years, adding the state government will explore if rehabilitated buildings can be made maintenance-free. With regards to religious sites, the deputy CM said legal structures will be protected. They could be realigned, but will get an appropriate place, he added. Last month, the Adani Group had emerged as the highest bidder for the 259-hectare Dharavi Redevelopment Project.
