MUMBAI John James gestures from his rooftop terrace over the panoramic view he commands of Asia`s largest slum — a labyrinth of lanes crammed with shacks in India`s financial capital of Mumbai.

“Do you believe they`d be interested in re-housing us if we weren`t sitting on prime real estate?” asks James, 71, a retired steel contractor who arrived here 40 years ago and built his own business.

The first inhabitants of Dharavi, as the slum is known, are expected to be rehoused within the next two years, said Mukesh Mehta, the government-appointed architect in charge of the $2.3 billion project he calls a “pioneering effort” to bring people decent living conditions.

But opponents say they want to stay put until a redevelopment scheme is worked out that suits them — and not just the developers who are planning to move in with a mix of public housing, luxury condos, offices and parks.

Maharashtra state officials plan to transform Mumbai, where 60 per cent of the population of 18 million are slum-dwellers, into a “world-class” financial hub by 2015.

To attain that goal, Dharavi — and dozens of other shantytowns in the sprawling city — must go.

Last month, a Forbes survey rated Mumbai the seventh filthiest city in the world.

“It`s certain that this project will change Dharavi into a heaven, but we won`t have a place in that heaven,” said journalist Raju Korde, who writes for the leading local language newspaper the Marathi Times and is a resident of Dharavi.

Last May, newspaper advertisements were published in 20 countries offering developers “the opportunity of the millennium” to take part in the Dharavi project. Five developers from a shortlist of 19 are expected to be chosen within the next couple of months, Mehta said.

Under the plan, 57,000 families or about 300,000 people will be moved into free but small — 225-square-foot — one-bedroom apartments in seven-storey blocks on the 551-acre (200-hectare) site surrounded by some of the world`s costliest real estate.

“The developers will make a lot of money by developing Dharavi,” Korde said. Mumbai used to be known as an industrial city, he said. “Nowadays it`s a (financial) service city so Dharavi is not needed. They want to destroy the city`s old face.”

MALARIAL SWAMP As Mumbai sits on a peninsula jutting into the sea, property prices rival those of London or New York.

Dharavi, once malarial swamp land on the city`s edge, sits between two main suburban railway lines and in the shadow of the swanky Bandra- Kurla Complex, a new commercial centre, making it a very desirable location.

The plan calls for Dharavi to have 20 million square feet of new housing for Mumbai`s well-heeled, 30 million square feet for the slum dwellers, and 20 million for commercial use such as offices and shopping malls.

“When people first settled here, it was marshland” next to the Mithi River where people caught fish to sell to city-dwellers, said James, who lives in a sturdy two-storey 1,500-square-foot house with his wife, an adult son, a daughter and her husband, and a grandson.

Later the area became a haven for poverty-stricken workers and penniless migrants who needed a cheap roof over their heads.

The project, in which developers will be compensated for building the free flats by constructing buildings to be sold at market rates, has been condemned by many residents who have created a self-sustaining economy.

Dharavi, a religious and cultural melting pot which every year draws thousands more migrants seeking to make their fortune, is a flourishing industrial centre.

“Seventy per cent of the families are self-employed,” said Jockin Arputham, head of the National Slum Dwellers Federation.

There are potteries, tanneries, garment workshops and other micro industries. The 15,000-odd cramped one-room factories and hundreds of cottage industries have an estimated total turnover of around half a bilion dollars a year, according to federal government figures.

The area is also famed for its thriving recycling industry in which workers break up computers, shred plastic, flatten cardboard and stack paper.

“How will I earn a living?” asked potter Hira Lal Rathod, gesturing to his 1,000-square-foot home where his four children live and he works. “To give us 225 square feet is not workable.” Architect Mehta says those running commercial operations can get extra space at a “concessional cost,” but the price has not been disclosed.

“Why should we have to pay for space we already have now — it doesn`t make sense,” said Rathod.

The Dharavi Bachao Andolan — an all-party forum set up to fight for bigger houses — is insisting that residents get free homes of between 400 and 800 square feet.Government officials readily praise Dharavi as a model of an entrepreneurial initiative and say they aim to conserve that spirit.

But the tanneries and other workshops pollute Mumbai`s already filthy waterways, they say, and the redevelopment, which includes environmentally friendly businesses, will ensure less pollution.

The slumdwellers will “get 225 square feet to live in — many live in places much smaller. They won`t have to line up for an outside toilet, they`ll have their own bathroom with running water and electricity,” said Mehta.

“There`s no reason for them be unhappy,” he said.

And of course some Dharavi residents agree.

Suresh Chaudhary, a balding taxi driver from northern Uttar Pradesh, has lived here for 15 years. He is squeezed into a second-storey room of just 150 square feet with his wife, 14-year-old daughter and mother. It is blisteringly hot during the summer and they have to line up for a communal toilet.

“Anything that gives us more space would be a help and having our own toilet and tap water will make a real difference,” said Chaudhary, 42.

By contrast, Triza Killekar, 53, has a sprawling three-storey structure measuring 6,000 square feet in which her extended family of 22 live. She says the small house on offer would be “joke”.

RESIDENTS` FEAR

The plan to rehouse 57,000 families does not begin to encompass Dharavi`s actual population, which is estimated at between 600,000 and one million.

Many of those people fear they will end up dumped on Mumbai`s outskirts unable to earn a living, said Arputham.

There are no official figures for Dharavi`s population because the area was classed as an illegal settlement until 2004 and the authorities have yet to carry out a count.

But only those registered on voter rolls in 2000 will be eligible for free homes, said Mehta.

Dharavi hardly fits the traditional image of a squalid slum.

While some of its alleys are garbage-strewn, many are relatively clean.

There are banks with ATMs, opticians selling expensive imported glasses, low-rise flats built by groups of slum dwellers who have formed collectives — all enhanced by the generally well-fed air of the residents.

Unlike many of the city`s flimsy wood and tarpaulin slums that have sprung up alongside roads and around the airport, Dharavi`s concrete structures and amenities have lent it a permanence.

While most inhabitants still have to use communal toilets, there`s now 24-hour electricity and running water and most households have television.

“We built all up this without government help, just with by working hard,” said James.MMConsultants, the architectural firm overseeing the redevelopment, estimates the average income in Dharavai at 60,000 rupees ($1,500) a year — reasonable in a country where many live on less than a dollar a day.

Mehta said he believes that if the Dharavi project is implemented successfully, the model can be replicated throughout Mumbai and elsewhere in India for the estimated 150 million people who live in slums.

Initially, plans called for approval by 70 per cent of residents, but Maharashtra`s Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh quashed the need for consensus, saying “This is a government project (so) there is no need for consent.” Arputham, who has threatened to bring the city to a halt by blocking the two commuter rail lines which border Dharavi, insists he does not oppose the redevelopment but says the views of the residents should be heeded.

“Nobody would not want redevelopment in Dharavi but it needs to focus on the needs of the people, not those of the developers,” he said.

“You can`t build a world-class city and not take into account the wishes of all of these people. These people are also voters and the politicians should take heed,

“They won`t be able to get away with it, the government will have to change its plans,” he said.—AFP