In the space of 24 hours, Maharashtra has put two big ideas in front of the public. On 1 October, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched “Invest Maharashtra”, a new investment promotion brand. On 2 October, Gandhi Jayanti, he inaugurated the Dharavi Experience Centre, a walk-through preview of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. Adani Group, which leads the Dharavi project, sat in the middle of both stories. Here is what is known, what is promised, and what still needs watching.
The Dharavi Experience Centre: what opened
The 22,500 sq ft centre is meant to show residents how the redevelopment plan fits together: housing, livelihoods, public amenities, transport and open spaces. According to the official media note reported by BusinessToday, the plan aims to keep Dharavi’s close link between homes and work, while adding schools, healthcare, places of worship, public transport and parks.
Oneindia reports that the centre has life-size housing models, a 3D walkthrough, and displays on a proposed Multimodal Transport Hub, river rejuvenation and green spaces. Interactive exhibits also trace Dharavi’s history and the small businesses that shaped it. At the inauguration, the Chief Minister also unveiled an anthem for Dharavi and released a coffee table book on the neighbourhood.
The centre had been promised earlier. At a conclave on 22 May 2026, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority’s chief executive, Dr Mahendra Kalyankar, said it would be set up before 15 August. It opened about seven weeks after that date.
The project in numbers
- Scale: The project aims to rehabilitate, redevelop and resettle nearly 1.6 lakh residential, commercial and industrial units, according to the Chief Minister’s statement in the Assembly in July 2026.
- The promise: Fadnavis said every eligible resident will get a home within Dharavi. He also said the first 10,000 rehabilitation homes should be ready within about 18 months.
- First construction: The first set of about 11,000 tenements is planned on Sector 6, the Matunga railway land. In June 2026, roughly 3,500 households there were asked to sign rental agreements and vacate.
- The bid: Adani Properties won the 2022 tender with an offer of Rs 5,069 crore, ahead of DLF’s reported Rs 2,025 crore. An earlier 2018 tender, in which Seclink Technologies had offered Rs 7,200 crore, was scrapped.
- Timeline set in 2022: Rehabilitation within seven years and the full project within 17 years, according to the Maharashtra government as reported by Business Standard.
One number to check before you rely on it: reports differ on the size of free rehabilitation homes. BusinessToday’s July report says eligible residents from before the year 2000 get 350 sq ft, and ThePrint also reports 350 sq ft tenements for Sector 6. A property-industry blog cites a range of 500 to 754 sq ft. The official Dharavi Redevelopment Project Authority record should settle this.
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Courts and critics
The Bombay High Court upheld the tender award to Adani Properties on 20 December 2024. The Supreme Court later declined to order a status quo on the project while hearing a challenge by Seclink Technologies, as reported by The Tribune. Work has continued.
Commentators have long raised a different concern. A Business Standard editorial from the time of the bid warned that the real test is the human factor, and that the project must not become a land grab that ignores Dharavi’s original residents. The numbers show why this matters: ThePrint reported that of more than one lakh tenements needing survey, only about 91,000 had cooperated at that stage, with roughly 13,000 or more outstanding.
Invest Maharashtra: what was launched
Invest Maharashtra was launched on 1 October 2026 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai, with the tagline “Made for Business”. IANS reports that the government unveiled 66 MoUs worth more than $92.19 billion, about Rs 8.58 lakh crore, expected to create over three lakh direct and indirect jobs. The logo joins the “i” of investment with the “M” of Maharashtra.
A stated goal is to spread industry beyond Mumbai and Pune. Fadnavis told the Invest Maharashtra team to take direct ownership of projects, track progress and fix regulatory bottlenecks early. Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar and members of the cabinet attended.
Where Adani and Dharavi fit in
Pranav Adani, a director of Adani Enterprises, used the launch to outline an investment blueprint of over Rs 6 lakh crore for Maharashtra, with projects worth about Rs 2.6 lakh crore already completed or under execution. These include pumped-storage hydro, a 1,000 MW HVDC transmission link into Mumbai, data centres and coal gasification. He called Dharavi a “people-first” programme that provides modern housing before relocation and formalises thousands of micro-enterprises.
That is the group’s own description. Residents and observers will judge it by delivery, starting with the first 10,000 homes.
The bigger investment picture
Invest Maharashtra follows a run of large announcements. All India Radio reported that at Davos in January 2026 the state signed 19 MoUs worth Rs 14.5 lakh crore on the first day, projected to create more than 15 lakh jobs. BW Businessworld notes the state is working toward a USD 1 trillion economy by 2030.
What to watch next
- MoU to factory floor: An MoU is an intent, not an investment. The test for Invest Maharashtra is how many of the 66 MoUs become operating projects, and how fast.
- Dharavi’s first handover: Whether the first 10,000 rehabilitation homes arrive on the 18-month schedule.
- Survey and eligibility: How the remaining unsurveyed tenements and non-eligible residents are handled.
- Livelihoods: Whether leather, pottery and food-processing units, a core part of Dharavi’s economy, are protected in practice.
