Dharavi project is about restoring dignity to over one million residents of country: Gautam Adani

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 5 (ANI): Adani Group Founder and Chairman Gautam Adani on Tuesday mentioned the Dharavi Redevelopment Project during a speech in a Mumbai college and said it is not just about “urban renewal” but “restoring dignity to over one million residents of our country”.

Addressing the students at Jai Hind College, Mumbai, Gautam Adani extended greetings to the teachers on Teachers Day.

“I wish Happy Teachers Day to all the teachers present here…I find it fascinating that 75 years ago, two visionary professors from DJ Sindh College in Karachi laid the foundation for these institutions in two small rooms. Despite the immense challenges and human displacement during the partition of our country, they envisioned a future where the power of education could heal and unite,” he said.

“I stand here today, humbled and thankful, having been invited by Vikram Nankani to share my experiences from this historic platform. Just as Jai Hind College was built on the principle of breaking boundaries and creating new possibilities, the theme of my talk will focus on the inspirations that allowed me to overcome my own boundaries,” he added.

Gautam Adani said that every nation has its transformative years that change the direction of its future.

“Every nation has its transformative years that change the direction of its future. 1947 was about a free India. 1991 was about the liberalisation of our businesses. And in 2014, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the essence of freedom was further accelerated as reforms and decisive governance took centre stage. All these years stand as turning points, each building on the other in India’s remarkable journey,” he said.

He asserted that the future belongs to those who dare to see beyond the present, who recognise that today’s limits are tomorrow’s starting points.

He talked about the development of Mundra port, the largest commercial port in India with state-of-the-art infrastructure and largest coal import terminal.

“In 1995, the Gujarat government announced its port-led industrial development plan through public-private partnerships. Around that time, we had been approached by the global commodities trader Cargill. It was a proposal to partner for manufacturing and sourcing salt from the Kutch region. While the partnership did not materialize, we were left with about 40,000 acres of marshy land and approval to build a captive jetty at Mundra for the export of salt,” he said.

“What others saw as marshy barren land, we saw as a canvas waiting to be transformed. That canvas is now by far our nation’s largest port! Mundra became my karmabhoomi and made my vision a reality a powerful testimony to the fact what you dream, you create, and what you think, you become. Mundra today hosts India’s largest port, the largest industrial Special Economic Zone, the largest container terminals, the largest thermal power plant, the largest solar manufacturing facility, the largest copper plant, and the largest edible oil refinery. And yet, we’re only about 10 per cent of what Mundra will eventually become. It stands as a living monument to the power of integrated business models and the strategic value of adjacencies challenging the very concept of core competencies that the west advocates,” he added.

Mundra port provides multimodal connectivity and is a deep-draft, all-weather port.

Gautam Adani said over the years he learnt a vital lesson that the “bigger your bets, bigger are the boundaries you break and bigger the boundaries you break, lesser is the competition”.

He spoke of Khavda in Kutch, one of the world’s most inhospitable deserts, now transformed into the world’s biggest Renewable Energy installation, spanning several hundred square kilometres. He then spoke of “world’s most complex redevelopment project” in Mumbai’s Dharavi.

“Khavda is not just another project it is a vision. Already generating more than 3,000 MW of clean energy – and on track to reach 30 GW in the next five years there is no parallel to Khavda today. For us, Khavda is a symbol of national pride capturing the philosophy of everything that the Adani Group as a company stands for,” he said.

“Or consider the world’s most complex redevelopment project in Mumbai’s Dharavi, where we are transforming the world’s largest slum over the next decade to create an unmatched ecosystem of sustainable living. For me, Dharavi is not just about urban renewal. It is about restoring dignity to over one million residents of our country. It is about the possibilities when you dare to dream big and act with purpose,” he added.

Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRPPL), a joint venture between the Adani Group and the Government of Maharashtra, announced that eligible residential tenements in Dharavi, will get flats with independent kitchens and toilets measuring a minimum 350 square feet (sq ft), which is 17 per cent more and the highest among slum redevelopment projects in Mumbai.