India, Sept. 11 -- A couple of weeks before the assembly elections in November last year, Eknath Shinde, then chief minister, said at an election rally that the Mahayuti government would make Mumbai slum-free. A few months earlier, the state had cleared a proposal to redevelop slum settlements on 31.82 hectares in Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar and Kamraj Nagar in Ghatkopar east - a decision Shinde described as "just a trailer" of what lay in store.

While the political rhetoric of freeing Mumbai of slums and providing affordable housing resurfaces every five years, this time, the "trailer" Shinde promised turned out to be just a teaser for the blockbuster redevelopment that followed.

The scale of slum rehabilitation in the last few months ...