This SPARC Samudaya Nirman Sahayak (SSNS) project is located in Dharavi, Asia’s second largest slum. The residents are drawn from the Bharat Janata Housing Cooperative (BJHC) living previously in slum housing and brought together by the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, (SPARC) the NGO parent company of SSNS.

Clients were previously living on the site and by joining their plots together were able to create a single large plot on which the apartment buildings could fit.

In a precedent setting initiative, this housing was densified by building a medium rise block of apartments through harnessing the Transferable Development Rights (TDR) approach. TDR is a scheme that enables developers to get valuable development rights from building slum-replacement housing, which can then be sold or used for private development. This works because there are restrictions on the height that buildings can normally be built in Mumbai, however TDR enables developers to build higher. SSNS have therefore used TDR to densify sites either through adding additional buildings or additional floors. Proving this model is an effective method of informal settlement upgrading, this approach is now adopted by other developers in the sector.