On May 4, 2026, the Dharavi Bachao Andolan organized a 'Jan Akrosh Morcha' to protest against Adani's company. A delegation of Dharavi Bachao Andolan accompanied by leaders of all opposition parties of Maharashtra met SRA officials after the protest and submitted a memorandum. The Dharavi residents have been demanding that all approximately 120,000 shanties and structures across Dharavi's six sectors must be deemed eligible and all Dharavikars must be provided with a home measuring 500 square feet within Dharavi itself. All residents should be allotted an equivalent amount of space. All shops, factories, industrial units, and commercial establishments should be allotted space within Dharavi itself, by designating a dedicated economic zone for this purpose. All religious sites - including temples, mosques, and churches - as well as grounds, community spaces, schools, colleges, and hospitals, should be redeveloped within Dharavi itself by allocating them appropriate locations.
They have also demanded to abolish eligibility cut-off date requiring documentary proof prior to December 31, 1999, and the final cut-off date should be adopted as 2011, which the SRA has accepted as the eligibility cut-off for slums in other parts of Mumbai.
During the tenure of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, when Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, an international tender for the Dharavi Project was floated in 2018. Then, the highest bidder, a Dubai-based SecLink Technologies Corporation, was awarded the tender for a sum of ₹7,400 crore. Adani Realty had also participated in this tender at the time but failed to secure the contract.
This tender originally encompassed only 550 acres of land within Dharavi; it did not include a specific 48.7-acre parcel of railway land situated within the slum area. The then Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray, had requested the Ministry of Railways to allocate this 48.7-acre land parcel for the Dharavi Project. The Maharashtra government had even paid ₹800 crore to the Railways for this purpose, yet the then Railway Minister Piyush Goyal kept the matter in limbo. However, after the toppling of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in June 2022, Eknath Shinde was appointed Chief Minister while Devendra Fadnavis became the Housing Minister, the aforementioned railway land was promptly handed over to the Dharavi Project.
Using this railway land issue as a pretext, the tender awarded to SecLink Technologies Corporation was cancelled. Subsequently, rules and regulations were manipulated to ensure that the Dharavi Project was awarded exclusively to Adani. It is widely alleged that the Uddhav Thackeray government was brought down precisely because Adani coveted the Dharavi Project. Moreover, Adani secured the project at a price approximately ₹3,000 crore lower than the original bid. The estimated market value of the 600 acres of land within Dharavi is believed to be a staggering ₹1.5 lakh crore. Furthermore, under the guise of the Dharavi Project, an additional 1,371 acres of prime land located across various parts of Mumbai were also allotted to Adani Realty. All these lands, estimated to be worth between ₹2 lakh crore and ₹2.5 lakh crore, have been handed over to NMDPL free of cost under the guise of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, ostensibly for the rehabilitation of "ineligible" residents of Dharavi. Adani's subsidiary, Adani Realty, holds an 80% stake in NMDPL, while the Government of Maharashtra holds a mere 20% stake.
The survey done by Adani's former company - DRPPL (Dharavi Redevelopment Project Private Limited), now NMDPL, has extensively utilised local brokers and musclemen. They even employed certain retired police officers to intimidate and threaten the residents. Despite these tactics, they have managed to complete the survey for less than 40% of the area. Several major localities within Dharavi have refused to cooperate with NMDPL in the survey following a call to action by the Dharavi Bachao Andolan. The collective demand of all these residents is that the government must first issue a written declaration confirming that all of them will be deemed "eligible" and will be provided with a replacement home for every home, and a replacement shop for every shop, located within Dharavi itself.
Until now, across the entirety of Mumbai, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has recognised only two categories: "eligible" and "ineligible." However, in Dharavi, a third category has been introduced: "undecided." By maintaining this "undecided" category, officials from NMDPL in collusion with SRA and BMC are engaged in corruption under the pretext of processing paperwork to grant "eligible" status, they are extorting large sums of money from residents.
The Dharavi Bachao Andolan has demanded the survey conducted by NMDPL should be annulled, and a fresh survey be conducted; and documentary proof should be requested only after a specific structure has been officially declared eligible for rehabilitation.
The residents of Dharavi firmly believe that Adani's company, NMDPL, is incapable of executing the redevelopment of Dharavi in a proper and satisfactory manner; therefore, a government-owned entity - such as MHADA, MMRDA, or CIDCO - should be appointed in its place.
