The public-private partnership model is also a key driver at the other
big slum resettlement project on Mehta's plate, near the city's
international airport. At an estimated cost of Rs.7,200 crore ($1.75
billion), the expansion and upgrade of Mumbai's international airport is
among the largest private-sector infrastructure projects underway in the
country. Plans are to double both annual passenger capacity to 40
million annually and cargo capacity to 1 million tons.
But to make way for that expansion, the project's promoter -- Mumbai
International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) -- has to clear 276 acres in the
airport's vicinity. That stretch includes a slum that houses between
60,000 and 80,000 families. The plans are to resettle them into new
housing at another location within a six-mile radius. "They have their
social and financial sustenance in this locality, so there would be huge
resistance if we try to move them too far out," says Sanjay Reddy, CEO
of MIAL, whose family-run GVK Group is a 74% joint venture partner with
the public sector Airports Authority of India (26%).
Reddy's firm has already identified the lots where it plans to build the
new housing, and is in the process of selecting a developer. "We took
over the airport's operations about a year ago and are doing many things
in parallel," he says. "The first is to continue running the existing
facility. Second, we are simultaneously working on improving the
operations. The third leg of the project is to redevelop the slum land
in the airport area."
But Mehta notes that having to move people out of the area will likely
make for a more challenging project. "Slums are really a vote bank for
the political parties," he says. "Even if you can convince the slum
dwellers to move and give them a better lifestyle, the political parties
obstruct it because they lose their votes. Local politicians don't want
to see a vote base they have cultivated for many years suddenly vanish."
cont'd....
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4223