Plea to stay the transfer of salt pan lands for Dharavi redevelopment

PIL challenges Maharashtra government's approval to transfer salt pan lands for Dharavi redevelopment, citing environmental concerns.

A public interest litigation (PIL) demanding the stay of an approval granted by the Maharashtra government to transfer salt pan lands for the redevelopment of the Dharavi area will be heard on January 30.

The Maharashtra government had decided to transfer 255 acres of salt pan lands in Mumbai from the Centre to State, without taking into consideration the environmental damage to the area, advocate Sagar Devre, who filed the PIL, said.

The land includes 120.5 acres at Kanjur, 76.9 acres in Bhandup, and 58.5 acres at Mulund.

The transfer was initially found to be in contravention of the Internal Policy Guidelines (IPG) 2012, which did not allow construction activities in saltpan land. The Union government, however, revised the IPG to enable the usage of such land for construction activities.

“It has been decided with the approval of the competent authority to issue the revised Internal Policy Guidelines-2024 for dealing with requests received in this Department from Central Ministries/Departments, Central Public Sector Enterprises, State Governments and State Public Sector Enterprises for transfer of land owned by the Government of India through the Office of the Salt Commissioner’s Organisation, for public purposes.” the PIL read, citing the violation of various Supreme Court rulings and environmental rules.

A part of the land (58.5 acres in Mulund) was then transferred to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Private Limited, the special purpose vehicle created to execute the project for ₹319 crore in October 2024, the PIL found.