Over the past two decades, several governments in Maharashtra have spoken of giving a facelift to Mumbai’s infamous slum of Dharavi – ostensibly the most thickly-populated area in India. Months after the BJP-Shiv Sena faction assumed power in June last year, the task was assigned to Gautam Adani’s Adani Group through fresh tenders.
The opposition – Shiv Sena’s Udhhav faction and the Congress – have alleged that the BJP “gifted” the Rs 23,000 crore project to Adani, purportedly at an inflated rate and after modifying the tenders’ conditions to allegedly serve the conglomerate’s interests. On December 16, thousands of opposition party workers rallied in front of Adani’s office in Mumbai to protest the project and its allocation to Adani.
