Mumbai is on the verge of a major transformation as the city’s largest slum clusters are lined up for redevelopment. After the success of the Juhu Galli pilot project in Andheri West, the Mumbai Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) is now pushing ahead with the redevelopment of three large slum pockets, Antop Hill in Wadala (450 acres), Majaswadi in Jogeshwari East (260 acres) and Behrampada in Bandra East (140 acres).The authority has begun the process of seeking approval from the state’s high-powered committee for all three projects. The consortium offered a 35.1% premium to the SRA, exceeding the standard 25% benchmark by 10 percentage points. SRA CEO Mahindra Kalyankar said the authority has now identified 18 additional slum cluster areas for redevelopment, each with land parcels over 50 acres.“With the vision of transforming Mumbai into a slum-free city and ensuring access to safe, dignified and permanent homes for citizens, the state govt has introduced several progressive measures under Housing Policy 2025,” said Kalyankar. What is the Juhu Galli Project?The 101.4-acre Juhu Galli cluster in Andheri West is the first slum cluster redevelopment project of its kind in Mumbai and is expected to deliver over 28,000 rehabilitation homes.“The Juhu Galli cluster redevelopment project is among the largest and first ever slum cluster redevelopment initiatives ever undertaken in Mumbai and is expected to result in the construction of more than 28,000 rehabilitation homes for eligible slum dwellers. This project is aimed at unlocking large slum clusters that have remained difficult to redevelop under conventional rehabilitation models. The initiative is expected to transform the urban landscape of the area while providing residents with safe, dignified, and modern housing,” Kalyankar said.The project came with strict financial conditions to protect residents which required the winning bidder to secure pending transit rent for slum dwellers, along with a cumulative transit rent commitment of approximately Rs 750 crore for two years with SRA, plus one year’s transit rent in post-dated cheques.A few days back, Delhi also approved a new slum rehabilitation policy, the Delhi Slum and JJ Cluster Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2026. It aims at providing permanent housing to around four lakh families living in JJ clusters across the city. Approved at a meeting chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah on June 16, the policy shifts from piecemeal rehabilitation to large-scale redevelopment through a public-private partnership model, where developers will build multi-storey housing for slum residents while commercially developing part of the land to fund costs.A key change is the extension of the eligibility cut-off date from January 1, 2015 to January 1, 2025, bringing significantly more residents within the rehabilitation net. The Delhi government plans to issue tenders for at least five PPP-based projects every month, with initial clusters likely in Mayur Vihar, Seelampur, Pitampura, Sultanpuri and Lajpat Nagar.
