- Fadnavis unveils Experience Centre, turning the redevelopment blueprint into homes, workplaces and neighbourhoods residents can see and question
- 22,500-sqft centre showcases life-size 350-sqft rehabilitation homes and 500-sqft renewal apartments
- 3D walkthrough brings proposed township, transport, public amenities, livelihoods and open spaces alive
- Dharavi’s economic identity placed alongside housing, healthcare, education, greenery and connectivity
- Pranav Adani: “Infrastructure must always have a human heart”
- Greater transparency can narrow the space for rumours, misconceptions and incomplete information
NE INFRASTRUCTURE BUREAU
MUMBAI, OCT 2
In Dharavi, the strongest foundation for redevelopment may not be concrete—it may be transparency. The more clearly residents can see the proposed homes, understand rehabilitation provisions, examine livelihood arrangements and access information about eligibility and implementation, the less space there is for rumours, speculation and incomplete information.
That citizen-centric principle acquired a physical form on Gandhi Jayanti on Friday with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurating the Dharavi Experience Centre, giving residents an opportunity to see, enter and understand elements of the proposed transformation of their neighbourhood.
Spread across 22,500 sqft, the centre presents life-size housing models, a detailed 3D walkthrough, digital displays and interactive exhibits covering homes, workplaces, roads, transport, public amenities and open spaces.
Fadnavis also unveiled an anthem dedicated to Dharavi and released a coffee-table book celebrating the neighbourhood, its history and its people.
From blueprint to something people can touch
The Experience Centre seeks to make a complex redevelopment proposal understandable at street level.
At its heart are life-size models of proposed 350-sq-ft rehabilitation homes and 500-sq-ft renewal apartments, with furnished and unfurnished configurations allowing visitors to examine layouts and visualise how the spaces could be used.
A 3D walkthrough takes visitors through the proposed township, showing residential and commercial areas, roads, transport links, public amenities and open spaces.
Interactive exhibits also trace Dharavi’s history and highlight the businesses, workshops and entrepreneurial activity that have made the neighbourhood an important part of Mumbai’s economic landscape.
The centre provides digital and assisted channels for information relating to surveys, eligibility, documentation and rehabilitation, helping residents understand the processes and provisions that could shape their homes and livelihoods.
That information-sharing function assumes added significance in a project involving thousands of households and enterprises. A redevelopment plan can be technically sound on paper, but its acceptance and implementation ultimately depend on whether affected communities understand what is proposed and can obtain reliable answers to their questions.
Transparency: The strongest antidote to rumours
The importance of this aspect was underlined by Fadnavis, who said the Experience Centre would help address residents’ questions and counter rumours, misconceptions and incomplete information surrounding the redevelopment.
That makes the centre more than an exhibition space.
It can become a public information bridge between the redevelopment authority, developer and Dharavi residents.
For a project of this scale, transparency will have to extend beyond displaying sample homes. Residents are likely to want continuing clarity on eligibility, surveys, documentation, rehabilitation entitlements, relocation sequencing, commercial establishments, livelihood continuity, construction timelines and grievance redressal.
The principle is straightforward: when information is accessible, specific and regularly updated, rumours find less room to grow.
In that sense, the Experience Centre’s greatest value may ultimately lie not in what it displays, but in the questions it enables residents to ask—and the answers institutions provide.
Keeping homes and livelihoods together
The proposed redevelopment seeks to retain Dharavi’s close connection between homes and livelihoods while adding schools, healthcare facilities, places of worship, public transport, parks and other social infrastructure. The plan also includes a proposed Multimodal Transport Hub intended to integrate different modes of transport and improve connectivity.
This livelihood dimension is crucial because Dharavi is not simply a residential settlement. Its dense network of micro-enterprises, manufacturing units and informal businesses has long been woven into the daily lives of its residents.
The redevelopment vision therefore seeks to address two intertwined questions:
Where will people live—and how will they continue to earn?
A greener and more connected Dharavi
The centre also showcases proposed environmental and public-realm interventions, including the rejuvenation of the Mithi river, around 40,000 trees across Dharavi, a 3.3-km public riverfront, parks and additional open spaces.
The proposed transformation thus goes beyond replacement housing to encompass mobility, civic infrastructure, greenery and public spaces.
For residents, however, the measure of such amenities will ultimately be their accessibility, usability and integration with everyday life.
‘infrastructure must always have a human heart’
The wider vision was articulated by Pranav Adani, Director, Adani Enterprises Ltd, who linked Dharavi’s redevelopment with the broader transformation of Mumbai and Maharashtra.
Speaking at the ‘Invest Maharashtra’ event in the presence of Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Ajit Pawar, Adani said the Adani Group was committed to Maharashtra’s economic growth while emphasising the importance of dignity and inclusive development.
He said the group had an investment blueprint exceeding ₹6 lakh crore across sectors including energy, aviation and aero-districts, urban regeneration, data centres and coal gasification, with projects worth ₹2.6 lakh crore described as completed or under execution.
Describing the group’s contribution to Mumbai’s next phase of development, he said:
“This is our contribution towards Mumbai 3.0 — not just a larger Mumbai, but a better-connected, more balanced and more inclusive metropolitan region.”
On Dharavi, Adani stressed a people-first approach.
“Infrastructure must always have a human heart.”
He said the project was intended to provide modern housing before relocation, formalise and safeguard micro-enterprises and transform Dharavi into an integrated economic hub while retaining its community character.
“Our approach is people-first: ensuring dignity, creating modern housing before relocation, formalising and safeguarding thousands of micro-enterprises and transforming Asia’s largest informal settlement into a vibrant, integrated economic hub without displacing the community’s soul,” he said.
From Dharavi to ‘Mumbai 3.0’
Adani also highlighted the group’s role in Mumbai’s aviation and power infrastructure.
“We have had the privilege of managing and transforming the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), continuously enhancing passenger experience and operational excellence.”
He also referred to the greenfield Navi Mumbai International Airport, which he described as a transformative infrastructure asset for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
On power infrastructure, he said Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited supplies more than three million homes and establishments across Mumbai, with more than 60% of its power supply sourced from renewables. He also highlighted the group’s 1,000-MW HVDC transmission link, describing it as a means of bringing resilient, clean power into the city.
The wider investment programme, he said, complements Maharashtra’s ambition of becoming a $1-trillion economy by 2030, with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region expected to play a central role.
The real test: trust on the ground
The Experience Centre has therefore opened an important new chapter in the Dharavi redevelopment narrative—but the larger test will unfold outside its walls.
For residents, transparency will mean more than attractive models and digital displays. It will mean clear answers, accessible documents, verifiable timelines, transparent eligibility processes, livelihood safeguards and credible grievance-redressal mechanisms.
For the authorities and project stakeholders, sustained public communication can help ensure that every major stage of redevelopment is accompanied by understandable and publicly accessible information.
And for Dharavi itself, the aspiration is larger than new buildings.
It is about whether better housing can coexist with livelihoods, whether infrastructure can coexist with community, whether modernisation can coexist with identity—and whether transparency can build the trust necessary to carry a transformation of this scale forward.
The Experience Centre has now put the proposed future on display.
The next step is to keep the information equally visible, accessible and transparent throughout the journey.
