Maharashtra: Of uncrowned real estate kings and the BMC waltz

It’s official — Mumbai’s uncrowned real estate king is . A recent video released by MPCC president Varsha Gaikwad reminds us of what the Group has already been handed on a silver platter.

The Mumbai airport, the 180 acre Air India colony, land parcels earlier occupied by Mother Dairy, plots in Bhandup, Kanjurmarg, Vikhroli, Malvani, Bharat Nagar, Abhyudaya Nagar and Motilal Nagar, 124 acres of the 311-acre Deonar landfill and 255 acres of so critical for the city’s fragile ecosystem.

All this largesse in the name of the . Gaikwad asks an important question: how could the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) allow the beneficiary to carry out the survey? Land surveys should be conducted by government departments, agencies like the BMC or even the collector.

Not that any of them are any better under the current dispensation: the allegation is that the Group is deploying retired police officers, local goons and small-time politicians to conduct the survey. Also, how could the company have a masterplan and a project report ready when only 37 per cent of the survey has been completed?

Neither the SPV nor the government nor the BMC bothered to consult or the people’s representatives. What will happen to Dharavi’s thriving leather and recycling industries? What about the bakeries, the garment factories, the zardozi workshops?

Nobody really knows. In any case, how was the masterplan passed without inviting objections, suggestions or feedback from the people, Gaikwad asks.

The interesting thing is: a redevelopment plan already exists. Dharavi was to have different zones, each zone provided with schools, playgrounds, gardens, dispensaries and police stations.

Now it seems the Adani Group plans to develop an ‘Adani City’ in Dharavi while shunting out its original residents to the margins of Mumbai — more specifically the Deonar dumping grounds. An investigation by the Indian Express — based on records obtained through the RTI, on-site visits and interviews with officials — reveals direct violations of environmental norms set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

As per its 2021 guidelines, hospitals, residential buildings and schools cannot be built even on ‘closed’ or non-operational landfills. The shocker is that the Deonar landfill is an active one. A 2024 CPCB report submitted to the principal bench of the National Green Tribunal reveals an hourly emission of 6,202 kg of methane. How can the humans of Dharavi — over 50,000 of them — be shunted off to live in this highly toxic hotspot?

Gaikwad also draws attention to the dilution of conditions laid down in the second tender invited for the Dharavi project. If 19 bidders had responded to the first tender — which had far more stringent conditions — why were the conditions watered down in the second round?

For the last three years, the ‘double engine’ BJP sarkar has ensured that elections to the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation), the richest civic body in the country, have been stalled. With no accountability to the public, officials have been colluding with the ‘company’ and taking recourse to blatantly undemocratic measures.

In October last year, the BMC went so far as to issue a notification that people who criticised and opposed the civic body and the government were liable to forfeit services provided by the BMC.

Gaikwad affirmed that just because public protests have become increasingly difficult, doesn’t mean she won’t keep asking uncomfortable questions.

A prime plot on Malabar Hill

Why only Dharavi, the government seems to be gifting the entire city to the Adani Group. That’s what Mumbaikars suspect — and with good reason.

The Group recently purchased a relatively small plot of land in Carmichael Road (officially called M.L. Dahanukar Marg) on Malabar Hill. The 1.1-acre plot was bought for Rs 170 crore by a subsidiary company, Mah-Hill Properties Pvt Ltd. The ensuing storm of protest was because this south Bombay plot was earmarked for a children’s park. Tired of waiting, the local citizens’ association had written to the BMC in 2017, undertaking to bear the cost of developing the park.

The area, they said, lacked a green lung for children and senior citizens. Activist Zoru Bhathena wrote a letter to the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) and the BMC pointing out that this plot is protected under the (CRZ). The BMC, however, changed the land-use and freed the plot for residential purposes.

Immediately after, the plot was sold. The sequence of events raised eyebrows — and hackles. Locals believe that the BMC, in collusion with the state government, also allowed the sale of this prime property at a rate much lower than the market rate.

Property brokers say the market rate in the Malabar Hill area is currently Rs 1 lakh per square feet. The 48,491 sq. ft. plot therefore has a much higher value than the Rs 170 crore shown on the date of registration (27 March 2025).

While it is not unusual for land registrations in the country to be undervalued, with everyone trying to evade stamp duty, Mumbaikars are outraged that one of the richest Groups in the country — that can well afford to pay the rightful amount — is getting away with paying a paltry sum of Rs 30,000 as registration fee and 10.46 crore as stamp duty.

The plot in question belonged to Nowrosji Jehangir Gamadia, a prominent Parsi businessman. Bombay-ites will know that Malabar Hill was developed partly on Gamadia’s estate. His death was followed by disputes among his heirs until they reached a settlement. The plot — located close to the BMC commissioner’s bungalow — was settled for Rs 140 crore in 1974, another dead giveaway that Rs 170 crore in 2025 cannot be its real market value.

The Adani Group has not yet disclosed whether the plot will be used for residential or commercial purposes. Meanwhile, its real estate footprint in the city is expanding too fast for comfort. It is planning an International Convention Centre which it claims will be bigger than Reliance’s Jio World Convention. The projected site is in Vile Parle. The design has, apparently, already been approved by the MMRDA.

The BMC waltz

Mumbaikars have had it with the BMC. Eknath Shinde’s repeated — and spectacularly unkept — promise of making Mumbai ‘pothole free’ in two years has brought citizens to a boil. Cratered roads that remind of Mars, footpaths that you can’t walk on, nightmarish commuting and non-stop digging across the city are daily complaints. Sheettal Mhatre, former BMC councillor from the Congress, resorted to lyrics to voice this collective angst:

Dig, Do & Repeat

They dig with grace, then vanish fast

A trench today, a mess that lasts.

Concrete dreams on muddy feet

Ah, the art of Dig, Do, Repeat.

Oh BMC, your love runs deep,

You build, you break, you never sleep

Just Dig, Do, Repeat, in loops so steep.

Shall we dare to dream concrete?

Or just hum along… Dig, Do, Repeat?