The real estate unit of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has received a go-ahead to finally start the development of a massive slum area in Mumbai, which was featured in the Oscar-winning British drama film "Slumdog Millionaire", Bloomberg reported.
The blockbuster movie gave people a peek into one of Asia's largest shanty towns, Dharavi, which spreads over roughly 620 acres (250 hectares) of potentially prime real estate in the financial capital, home to more than 20 million people.
The Indian conglomerate is set to revamp the shanty town soon as a representative of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority overseeing the project confirmed receiving the final nod of the Maharashtra state government.
However, there is no word from the Adani Group that won the project with a bid of ₹50.7 billion ($620 million) at the end of 2022.
Rose to prominence after the blockbuster movie, Dharavi sits next to Bandra Kurla Complex, which is Mumbai's upmarket district of shopping malls, embassies and banks, including offices of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
As per the report, Mumbai’s administrators have struggled for decades to modernise the Dharavi because of the difficulty of acquiring large tracts of land, attracting investors to a place without stable utilities, and resettling an estimated 1 million people who reside in the neighbourhood.
Chances are the slum is transformed into modern apartments, offices, and malls as Adani looks to extend his foothold in the country's financial capital, where he already runs one of the country’s busiest airports.
However, the local inhabitants have protested the impending redevelopment and expressed concerns about being relocated far from the city center or being dumped into tiny apartments with poor amenities.
Meanwhile, questions have been raised on Adani's ability to find the estimated $3 billion required for the project after the January report from short-seller Hindenburg Research, which caused massive damage of $150 billion to the conglomerate’s market value at one point.
However, the group denies any wrongdoing in the acquisition of funds.