Leading real estate developer Godrej Properties has tied up with engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) to bid for the redevelopment of Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, reports the Economic Times. Confirming the development, Godrej Properties MD Milind Korde said: “We will be forming a joint venture with L&T to bid for the Dharavi redevelopment. Other modalities of the JV are being worked out.”

Two other Mumbai-based developers — Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) and Akruti Nirman — have already formed JVs with Lehman Brothers and Limitless, an arm of Dubai World, to bid for Dharavi. The Godrej Properties-L&T JV will bid for the redevelopment of all the five sectors of Dharavi, which the government has identified. Godrej has already submitted the expression of interest (EoI) to bid for the project.

The project has evoked interest from not only large real estate players like DLF, Emaar-MGF Hiranandani and Sobha Developers, but also the Ambani brothers. It includes replacing 57,000 slum structures spread over 500 acres. The entire area has been divided into five sectors of about 1.5 crore sq ft each. The project is expected to generate close to Rs 25,000 crore for the Maharashtra government.

Although interested companies will be allowed to bid for as many sectors as they like, each bidder will get only one sector to develop. Selected companies will then rehabilitate slum-dwellers in about 60 lakh sq ft in each sector while the remaining can be sold commercially. The huge surplus land that the project will throw up in the space-starved metropolis explains the interest shown by various players.