Mumbai’s once infamous underworld den to be replaced by skyscrapers

Dagdi Chawl, the once infamous den of underworld don Arun Gawli in Mumbai is all set to be redeveloped

Dagdi Chawl, the once infamous den of underworld don Arun Gawli in Mumbai is all set to be redeveloped. Ten chawls in this compound at Agripada in south-central Mumbai and owned by Gawli will be replaced by multi-storey towers, HT has learnt.

10 August 2016, Mumbai : Housings and Commercial Real Estate, construction projects in Mumbai. Photo by Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint (Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint)

Geeta Gawli, the corporator and daughter of Arun Gawli confirmed the development. “We have approximately 350 tenants in our chawls and they will get houses of 450 square feet area,” said Geeta. “We are at the planning stage and we have finalised a local builder to undertake this redevelopment,” she said.

The redevelopment will take place mostly under the cluster redevelopment scheme.

Arun Gawli ruled the underworld from Dagdi chawl and held regular darbars for the people. People would dread coming to Dagdi chawl due to its ill-reputation. It was also often in news due to police raids in the mid-nineties after the Mumbai Police decided to take the underworld head-on.

Currently, the Gawli family, which lives in the redeveloped building on the 4th floor, will also be part of this project. The ground floor houses the office of the Akhil Bhartiya Sena (ABS) which was founded by Gawli.

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has given the initial sanction for the project. “We have given the Letter of Intent (LOI) for the redevelopment of Dagdi Chawl,” said MHADA Chairman (Repair Board) Vinod Ghosalkar. This was issued after the residents of Dagdi chawl gave their consent to the revamp process.

The chawl is a virtual fortress and no one is allowed inside without the mandatory checks by Gawli’s men. After 1987, when gang wars erupted in the city, Gawli and his men remained confined to these chawls. Most tenants were supporters of Gawli. In fact, police officials point that the gang members constructed tunnels, holes and cavities in their houses as their hideouts.

Gawli also had a stint in politics when he formed the ABD and contested assembly as well as municipal elections. He was elected an MLA in 1999. His daughter is a corporator of the city’s civic body the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The Saat Rasta-Byculla area around Dagdi Chawl has seen vertical development in the past two decades with several old buildings making way for skyscrapers.