One of Asia's most notorious slums went up for sale yesterday in a US$2.3 billion project to raze thousands of ramshackle homes and create one of the world's hottest building sites.
The filthy and cramped 217 hectare slum of Dharavi stands on prime building land in Mumbai, parts of which have some of the world's most expensive real estate, and has long been an embarrassment to promoting the country's economic capital as a global financial center.
Newspaper advertisements were published in 20 countries yesterday offering "the opportunity of the millennium" for five major developers to take part in the long-delayed and controversial project in one of Asia's largest slums.
Some 57,000 families -- about 300,000 people -- will be moved into free but tiny one-bedroom homes in the area and swathes of land will be cleared for business and high-rise flats bounding some of the city's wealthiest parts.
"Throughout the world slum dwellers are regarded as pests," said architect Mukesh Mehta, who has championed the project for a decade.
"With this, the government of Maharashtra [the state that includes Mumbai] regards them as important human resources and assets.
"You can expect a very beautiful suburb that hopefully other people from around the world will want to emulate," Mehta said.
The project has been fiercely condemned by the slum-dwellers, who have created a vibrant self-sufficient economy of potteries, tanneries and other industry among the warren of narrow lanes.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS