Mumbai’s long fight for cleaner, safer and more dignified housing has taken a sharp turn with a major policy shift from the Maharashtra government. In a move aimed at accelerating the city’s transformation, the state has removed the need for individual consent from slum dwellers for cluster-based redevelopment projects. The decision, detailed in a fresh government order, rewires the way slum rehabilitation will be planned and executed across India’s financial capital.
For decades, redevelopment in Mumbai has stumbled over one recurring hurdle: fragmented ownership. Each cluster was a maze of individual plots, structures and households, which meant that gathering consent often took years. The new model attempts to cut through that tangle. Instead of individual sign-offs, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority will now anchor redevelopment on contiguous land parcels of at least 50 acres, provided that more than half the area is occupied by slum dwellers or slum structures. Once these conditions are met, the project can move forward without waiting for door-to-door approvals.
The state has also widened the kind of land that can be brought under this umbrella. Private land, government land, semi-government plots and even old, unsafe buildings or chawls can be folded into a single redevelopment plan. What stands out is the government’s decision to include land owned by central agencies for the first time. The order notes that such land can be added once permissions from the relevant central authorities are in place. It is a quiet but significant shift, especially in Mumbai where major chunks of prime land are held by central government institutions.
Another layer of complexity lies in coastal regulations, and the government has addressed that head-on. Many slum pockets sit in CRZ-I and CRZ-II zones, typically areas with strict development controls. The order says these can now be integrated into cluster redevelopment, with rehabilitation allowed either on-site or within a five-kilometre radius, depending on CRZ and planning norms. In a city repeatedly reshaped by its coastline, this inclusion could unlock several stalled or politically sensitive pockets.
The order spells out how private developers will be brought into the system. They may be appointed through public-private partnerships or through open tenders by agencies handling the land. Developers who already control 40 percent or more of a cluster will be given priority, a clause that may give existing landholders a head start. Where multi-storey buildings exist within a designated cluster but are not part of the slum area, the developer will need to acquire development rights for those structures as well. This ensures that the entire cluster is redeveloped as one unit rather than a patchwork.
Oversight is being placed squarely in the hands of a high-level committee. The Minister of Housing and Urban Development will chair this group, with senior bureaucrats including the Housing Secretary, the BMC Commissioner and the SRA CEO serving as members. A representative from whichever public body owns the land will also sit on the panel. The idea is to keep decision-making centralised, coordinated and free from bureaucratic drift.
The broader ambition is clear enough: Mumbai has outgrown incremental fixes. Large-scale redevelopment is the only way to replace hazardous, congested settlements with adequate housing and infrastructure. By removing individual consent, the government is betting that projects will move faster, private developers will stay invested, and residents will get clarity instead of endless delays.
Whether the model delivers on its promise will depend on execution, transparency and trust. But for the moment, the city has a policy that finally acknowledges the scale of its challenge and attempts to match it with equally large solutions. This marks a new stage in Mumbai’s long, uneven journey toward becoming a slum-free city, even if the path ahead will still demand sustained political and administrative will.
