I am a master in India

Chapter 199 Upgrading the Slums

"Rahu, do you have any good ideas?" Ron asked, intrigued.

“Move those people to the slums.”

"What?" Ron was confused.

“What I mean is to find a new slum to take them in.”

“Okay, man, this won’t work,” Ron sighed.

He thought Lahu had some brilliant idea, but it turned out to be just another case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The problem is that if there were room in other slums in Mumbai, there wouldn't be so many sidewalk residents in the city.

"You just said how many people were on that piece of land? Be more specific." Rahu was still thinking.

“Thirty thousand, no more than that.” Ron shrugged.

“Let’s see if it’s enough.” Rahul spread out the city planning map again.

“Wait, are you serious? Where in Mumbai are there any extra slums?” Ron also leaned back onto the desk.

“I’m not talking about slums built on wasteland.” Rahul traced something on the map with his finger.

“A friend of mine once told me that most of Mumbai’s slums are built on construction sites. Is there another kind of slum?”

“Of course, there are two kinds of slums. One kind is created out of thin air in wasteland, and the other kind already exists… Found it!” Rahul tapped his finger on the map.

That's in the northeast of the Suer Industrial Park, just across the road, with a regular terrain. However, according to the markings on the planning map, there seems to be a sign indicating a certain office building.

“That place…” Ron frowned, “it looks like someone’s there.”

“I know, a few old office buildings,” Rahul said with a smile.

"So where are those existing slums you're talking about?"

“That’s it.” Rahul pointed to the map.

“You mean…” Ron’s eyes showed some understanding.

"That's right, the dilapidated houses in Mumbai are the second type of slum."

This is thanks to India's peculiar "Rental Law," which stipulates that as long as the tenant pays rent, the landlord has no right to evict him, and the lease will be automatically renewed upon expiration.

The rent remains unchanged during the period of residence, still at the standard of the 1950s, and the rental property can even be inherited by future generations.

It encourages tenants to occupy landlords' properties without having to pay any price.

Those honest and unassuming tenants might be willing to move out if the landlord hires gang members to intimidate them.

But what if they're not so easy to deal with? For example, tenants with connections, or small companies in office buildings.

They are familiar with the Rental Law and can easily sue the landlord, and they are sure to win.

Therefore, landlords who are stuck with the house and suffer the consequences of selling it have no choice but to post warnings about dangerous buildings and refuse to repair them.

Over time, Mumbai's housing stock will not increase, and housing quality is unlikely to improve fundamentally. Or to be more precise, housing quality is deteriorating.

There are 20,000 buildings in Mumbai that have been identified as unsafe and require government funding for repairs, but the actual number of repairs per year is less than 1,000.

“The city of Mumbai has to discard 45,000 houses every year, while the number of houses built each year is less than half of the demand.”

These 45,000 obsolete houses will be classified as slums, meaning that, in the planning department's terms, the people's housing needs can be met in the 'formal market.' Rahul pointed to the area on the map.

“So these office buildings belong to the second type of slum, old houses that have been in disrepair for many years!” Ron said thoughtfully.

"That's right, there are dozens or even hundreds of small companies crammed into that building. They only need to pay a negligible amount of rent each month to enjoy the right to use that office building indefinitely."

"How do you know so much?"

“I’m not only an architect, but also an urban planner,” Rahul said proudly, swaying his neck.

Ron now roughly understood what he meant; those office buildings were enough to accommodate 30,000 residents.

People in slums aren't so particular; it's common for a dozen or more people to squeeze into one room.

With a little renovation, the rooms in an office building can be divided into thousands of individual rooms.

They are all slums, but the conditions vary.

One is a high-rise building with water and electricity, while the other is a thatched hut that could be blown down by a gust of wind, and it also faces the constant threat of forced demolition by the municipal committee.

That's it. If such a place really existed, the people of the Sur slum would definitely move there eagerly.

"What's the condition of these office buildings? Are they all dilapidated?" Ron circled them on the map.

"It's definitely old, and according to regulations, it needs to be repaired before people can live in it, but you know the situation in India..."

The whole country is a makeshift operation; even the drinking water doesn't meet standards. How can you expect the houses you live in to be any good?
“I need to see for myself,” Ron decided.

“It might be better to leave them to those who need them,” Rahul shrugged.

Rather than letting a bunch of deadbeats occupy that place, it would be better to find a home for the people in the slums.

The problem now is how to get hold of those buildings; Ron doesn't have any ideas for the time being.

Of course, those buildings won't be given to people from the slums for free; at the very least, rent and utilities will still be charged.

The community management is also entirely handled by their own people. If things go well, they might just gain a large number of new believers.

After leaving Rahul's studio, Ron immediately led his men straight to the northeast of Suer Electric Appliances.

This area marks the edge of the city skyline; it contains residential areas, markets, various small workshops, and even somewhat impressive office buildings.

However, it is far inferior to the high-rise buildings in South Mumbai, and supporting facilities such as shopping malls and high-end apartments are also rare.

The office buildings Rahul mentioned were indeed not far from Suer Electric Appliances; they were separated only by that undeveloped wasteland.

The building appears to be from the 1970s, with many of its exterior facades showing signs of age and disrepair.

As soon as Ron and his group got out of the car, they bumped into a group of men and women, carrying shovels, hammers, dustpans, and brooms, heading towards a wall. "What are they doing?" he asked curiously.

Ashish didn't understand, but Amor was very experienced.

"Boss, they're patching up the wall."

"Repair the wall?"

"Correct."

"But the wall looks fine."

The wall that the men and women surrounded was not only fine, but also looked to be in pretty good condition.

One of the leaders was holding a wooden mallet, tapping and making marks along the wall.

“They’re going to tear down that wall and use it to build another one,” Amor said with certainty.

Sure enough, after roughly figuring out the location, those people immediately got to work and began digging holes at the marked spots.

The dismantled building materials were transported back to where they came from using bamboo baskets and wooden carts.

There was a hole in the corner of a building that needed repair, and that was their job.

Ron frowned as he looked at the repair materials; they seemed less durable than the original ones.

Unfortunately, India lacks a professional civil engineer certification body, and all the training received by all the engineers is substandard.

The yellow sand mixed with cement was sifted from the wild, carrying salt grains, silt, and excrement, so even newly built houses look weathered, as if they had been gnawed by rats and insects.

If the landlord refuses to repair the building, the residents have to hire people to do it themselves. Whoever's wall is damaged is responsible for repairing it; usually, no one does it.

However, this hole is quite serious. When the rainy season arrives, water pours in, so it has to be repaired.

The hired workers, lacking materials for repairs, had no choice but to demolish the existing wall in the area.

Repairing it again and again, patching it up by robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Well, Rahul said this is a slum too, so it's not an exaggeration.

The ocean to the west is also one of the culprits in the destruction of these office buildings. It corrodes their exterior walls, and moisture seeps into the walls, causing the plaster inside to become damp and soft, eventually seeping out as liquid from the ceiling.

Ron stood at the entrance of the nearest building, above which hung an eye-catching sign.

Warning: This building is dangerous and may collapse at any time. Anyone entering is solely responsible for any consequences. The owner is not liable for any loss of life or property arising therefrom. -- Owner's Notice

The wooden handrail of the narrow staircase was rotten and rotten. Ron carefully stepped onto the second floor.

Before even entering the corridor, all sorts of signs are vying to pop up on the heads of visitors.

Civil servant prep courses, accountant training courses, private banking, trading companies.
These offices were surprisingly well-decorated; some even had air conditioning, and the indicator lights on the computer cases were flashing.

However, the public areas outside the office are dilapidated. Where there should be windows in the corridors, there are now several large holes, and there are also notices on the walls that read "This building is dangerous and may collapse at any time."

Due to rental laws, homeowners earn almost no income from renting out their properties, and their only means of protest is to not make any repairs to their homes.

They posted warnings everywhere, hoping to scare away the many tenants upstairs.

The building has ten floors, runs east-west, and has about twenty or thirty offices on each floor.

Ron walked around and found that every office was occupied.

Not far away, there are four more buildings like this.

You don't even need to go there to know that the situation is pretty much the same.

“If we remodel the offices, how many people do you think could live in this building?” Ron asked Amor beside him.

"If we squeeze in, six or seven thousand people are no problem."

Will there be any trouble?

"Public toilets".

Okay, that is indeed a problem.

The building was originally designed as an office building and could not possibly have a restroom in every office.

One can imagine what the public restrooms in the building would look like if six or seven thousand people flooded in.

Swimming in a sea of ​​excrement?

The scene was too beautiful for Ron to imagine.

"What do you suggest?"

"Seal off all the toilets in the building and build a larger public toilet at the back."

Amor's idea was simple: if there weren't enough, then leave none behind.

That way, those lazybones would rather step into a latrine than walk a few extra steps downstairs.

You have to whip the Indians in the slums.

"Write it down." Ron waved and prepared to go downstairs.

“Boss, here are the homeowner’s phone numbers,” Ashish said, pointing to a notice.

"No rush, let's acquire the land first."

Upgrading the slums should be left until last.

The Suer Industrial Park is just the first step; he needs to take over that wasteland now.

Yes, Ron is going to New Delhi. The capital of this country, the center of power.

(End of this chapter)