Mumbai's Kamathipura poised for redevelopment: Why residents are excited

India Today

4 days ago

The decks have been cleared for the largest such cluster redevelopment project in Mumbai with the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) floating tenders for the redevelopment of Kamathipura in south Mumbai. The MHADA is looking at appointing a construction and development agency for the precinct.This will cover around 943 cessed buildings (those that pay a repair cess to MHADA), and 350 non-cessed buildings, 14 religious places and two schools run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Many of these buildings are over a century old and, hence, in a dilapidated condition. Put together, 9,761 tenants, including 8,385 residential and 1,376 commercial, will be covered. This also includes 1,760 landlord units.advertisementThese crumbling buildings in the 15 lanes that will be reconstructed include houses that measure around 100-150 square feet. The smallest tenements are just 60 sq ft, forcing many people to sleep on the roads at night. It is not uncommon to find even more than one family living in a matchbox-sized room. Residents also complain that the floors of these buildings, which are built on lands reclaimed from swamps and marshes, are sinking. Now, the residents will get around 500 sq ft houses, and commercial units will be given structures of the same size.The redevelopment will be done in an integrated manner under Regulation 33(9) of the Development Control Regulations by the Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board, which comes under MHADA. The successful bidder will receive around 567,000 sq metres of development rights; a housing stock of approximately 4,500 new units is expected to be constructed.advertisement
In December 2022, the state cabinet approved a proposal to appoint MHADA as the nodal agency for the 27.59 acres cluster redevelopment scheme, which will be the largest such Brownfield project in Mumbai and cover approximately 100,000 people.In the 18th century, the Telugu-speaking 'Kamathi' workers from the dominions of the Nizam of Hyderabad came to Mumbai. They worked as construction labour and settled on a marshy plot of land in south Mumbai. In 1804, the government reclaimed this land to house these workers and thus, Kamathipura, or the 'area of the Kamathis', was born.The Kamathis also staffed Mumbai's textile mills, integrated with the local Marathi culture, played a seminal role in the development and growth of Mahatma Jotiba Phule's Satyashodhak Samaj, and were part of the vanguard of the 'Samyukta Maharashtra' movement that ensured statehood for Maharashtra in 1960. In his seminal work on the role of the Telugus in the development of Mumbai, journalist and author Manohar Kadam refers to them as the sword arm of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement.But gradually, this area developed an unpalatable reputation of sorts due to the sex trade operating from some of its lanes. Mumbai's position as a port city and military centre, coupled with high numbers of migrant workers, led to a rise in this trade. In colonial Mumbai, apart from Indian sex workers, it was not uncommon to find European women who were engaged in the trade.advertisementWriter Ashwini Tambe mentions that in the colonial era, they lived principally in Kamathipura. This has also been depicted in Hindi films, most recently the Alia Bhatt-starrer Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022). S.M. Edwardes, the former police commissioner of Bombay (1909-16), wrote that the arterial Cursetji Shuklaji Street, on Kamathipura's borders, was known as 'safed galli', or white lane, due to the European sex workers.Mumbai historian Deepak Rao noted that Shuklaji Street also had Chinese residents, Chinese social clubs and opium and gambling dens, and even a Chinese graveyard nearby.Kamathipura has left much of this past behind. It is now a market for textiles, electronic goods and recycled scrap, and the sex trade is taking its last gasps. But the stereotypes continue to persist, much to the chagrin of residents. This also overshadows the larger contribution of Kamathipura to contemporary history.For instance, young Ambedkarites such as Namdeo Dhasal and fellow poet J.V. Pawar, who stayed at 'Vaakdi Chawl' at Siddharthnagar in Kamathipura's lane number one, birthed the Dalit Panther movement on May 29, 1972, to protest against the caste system.advertisementDr Vishal Yelle, a Kamathipura resident and general practitioner, welcomed the redevelopment plan. 'Now that the tender has been floated, we are more than halfway through. All residents, shopkeepers and landlords are eagerly awaiting the redevelopment for years,' he said.Yelle said many families who had given their dwellings on rent and shifted to larger houses in places like Virar were also expected to move back to Kamathipura once the area was redeveloped. 'Kamathipura has excellent rail connectivity due to its proximity to the Mumbai Central Railway Station, access to hospitals and playgrounds. The only issue that locals face is the small size of their houses,' he added.Amin Patel, four-term Congress MLA from Mumbadevi, whose constituency covers Kamathipura, said the project had the potential to transform the lives of the people. 'MHADA must undertake this work in a transparent manner and ensure that it is completed within a period of five to seven years,' he said.Residents say the redevelopment will help change the way their working-class locality is perceived by the society at large and boost their prospects in terms of jobs, marriage proposals and even loans and credit cards. This is regardless of the dwindling presence of the 'red-light' area in Kamathipura. Many brothel owners have sold or rented their premises to traders and manufacturers of goods like bags and jeans, and many women involved in the sex trade have shifted to the distant suburbs. Some of those who ply their trade stay in parts of the eastern suburbs and beyond and travel here for work.advertisementSubscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends