Andhra adopts a Dharavi-style, developer-funded model for slum redevelopment

Andhra Pradesh’s cabinet has approved a developer-funded model for slum redevelopment, borrowing from Mumbai’s Dharavi project, starting with a pilot at the Velampeta slum in Visakhapatnam. A private bidder will rehouse the slum’s 177 families in a high-rise, funded not from the state exchequer but through Transferable Development Rights, with the developer bidding competitively on how much TDR it needs in place of construction cost. The government has waived fees and relaxed building rules to make it viable, and wants the project treated as a template to replicate across the city, alongside a wider slum-redevelopment and middle-class housing policy it is now drafting. The pilot is small, but the market-driven model is the point.