Dharavi dreams: Inside the plan to transform Asia’s largest slum

Dharavi’s unique advantage is that it squats, 620 acres of swamp, sewer and slums, right in the heart of Mumbai

“Dharavi is the Malabar Hill of Indian slums,” said Kiran Dighavkar. He was the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) assistant commissioner of G-north ward — under which Dharavi falls — during Covid, and widely lauded for his handling of the lockdown in the world’s third largest and densest slum. “If anyone living in a slum in India gets a marriage proposal from Dharavi, it’s considered a leg-up for them.”

Dharavi’s unique advantage is that it squats 620 acres of swamp, sewer and slums, right in the heart of Mumbai. (Raju Shinde/HT )

Unlike the two other slums larger than it — Khayelitsha in Cape