Dharavi.. too simplistic?

For some reason I got thinking about the Dharavi SRA project. I visited the website and found some simplistic information which suggests that the detailed process or plans need not be displayed for public scrutiny.. This is the link .. http://www.sra.gov.in/htmlpages/Dharavi.htm

This is the brief project outline which tells us more or less nothing about the response of the slumdwellers nor does it have any humane aspect attached to it. There is no thought being given to their existing lives or communities not to their means of livelihood which will be completely disrupted during the development. Putting these people in 225 sq. ft. rooms is the solutions that the SRA has come up with. What's new with that? That's the standard solution they have applied everywhere before this and it has failed. If just a little thought is given to this, we will know why it has failed..

• People living in any slum area form their communities and work their lives around this. Giving them random flat allotments based on a lottery system is not going to work. Uprooting people from a familiar environment, making them live in confusion for 5 - 7 years while the 'development' is carried out and then giving them homes in 7-storey buildings with random neighbours will never work. For this project to work, an effort will have to be made to reconstruct communities during and after the development.
• New urbanism, not builder development, is the solution. A holistic master plan has to be prepared which takes into account all existing industry and residential requirements and 'work close to home' solutions have to be provided to these people. They will not live at one end of the development and work in another. they are used to a different life and instead of dictating changes, it would be better to adapt the design solution such that it gets built and used.
• The urban landscape of Mumbai is a mess. Random construction is creating an ugly, haphazard skyline. Just driving over the bridge to Mahalaxmi station one can see multiple constructions of all shapes and sizes coming up. There is no thought giving to urban aesthetics. Developing an area of the size of Daharavi, the developing body must ensure that the aesthetics are uniform and not jarring. This is the one opportunity to beautify the skyline. Sion is lovely with the old low buildings. The development must follow these lines so that the area looks liveable and not monstrous with multi-storey towers. This may sound simplistic and it may sound like this is not the solution to our habitation needs but it is. It is, however, not an answer to the greed of the developers and the development authorities.
• There is no mention of green design or renewable energy anywhere in this proposal. Considering that the environment has to be the primary concern in any development, this is the most surprising thing. No mention of solar water heaters, no mention of solar energy, passive solar design for buildings, nothing.. no guidelines in place either.

If we want to rehabilitate these people, we must do it in a more humane manner rather than try to cram familes with upto 10 members in a 225 sq. ft. flat in a 7-storey building.. That is not the answer. This is not to say that slums are good and slum-dwellers deserve to get lavish homes that most middle-class people can't afford. However, we have chosen to accept them, to legalise their slums and to provide them with alternative habitat. Let's do that in a more humane manner and at the same time beautify the city rather than providing a mechanical solution that we already know does not work.

Let's give them homes that they can live in and prosper in; not homes that they hate and want to sell off at the drop of a hat and move to newer slums..

Let's bring in new urbanism and give the city a new lease of life.. We have approximately 200 hectares of land to do that..  For once, let's look at a lasting future instead of short-term greed..