I'm a Master in India

"Rahul, do you have any good ideas?" Ron became interested.

"Move those people to the Slum."

"What?" Ron was confused.

"I mean find a new Slum to take them in."

"Alright, brother, that won't work." Ron sighed.

He thought Rahul had some brilliant move, but it turned out to be the same old trick of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The problem was, if there were places in other Slums in Mumbai, there wouldn't be so many pavement dwellers in the city.

"How many people did you just say were on that piece of land? Be specific." Rahul continued his thoughts.

"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 over the desk.

"I'm not talking about Slums built on wasteland." Rahul was tracing something on the map with his finger.

"A friend of mine told me that most Slums in Mumbai spring up with construction sites. Is there a second type?"

"Of course, there are two types of Slums. One is built out of nothing on wasteland, and the other is already existing... Found it!" Rahul tapped the map with his finger.

It was northeast of Sur Industrial Park, just across the road, with regular terrain. However, according to the markings on the planning map, it seemed to be annotated with a certain office building.

"That place..." Ron frowned, "It seems like there are people."

"I know, a few old office buildings." Rahul's face showed a smile.

"So, where is the type of Slum you mentioned, the one that already exists?"

"It is." Rahul pointed to the map.

"You mean..." Ron's eyes showed some understanding.

"That's right, Mumbai's dilapidated buildings are the second type of Slum."

This was thanks to India's bizarre "Rent Control Act," which states that as long as a tenant pays rent, the landlord has no right to evict them, and the lease will automatically renew after it expires.

During the period of residence, the rent remains unchanged, still at the standard of the 1950s, and the rented house can even be inherited by descendants.

It encourages tenants to squat in the landlord's house, and they don't have to pay any price for it.

For those honest tenants, if the landlord finds gang members to intimidate them, they might obediently move out.

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

They are familiar with the "Rent Control Act" and can sue the landlord, and they will definitely win.

So, landlords who are stuck with houses and suffer when selling them have no choice but to post warnings about dilapidated buildings and refuse to repair the houses.

Over time, the housing stock in Mumbai will not increase, and the quality of houses will be difficult to improve fundamentally. Or to be precise, the quality of houses is deteriorating.

There are 20,000 buildings in Mumbai that are classified as dilapidated and need to be repaired with funds from government agencies, but the actual number of repairs each year is less than a thousand.

"The amount of housing eliminated in the entire city of Mumbai each year is 45,000 units, while the number of newly built houses each year does not even meet half of the demand.

These 45,000 eliminated houses will be classified into the Slum category. In the terminology of the planning bureau, it means that the public's demand for housing can be met in the 'informal market'." Rahul pointed to that area on the map.

"So, these office buildings belong to the second type of Slum, old houses that have fallen into disrepair!" Ron looked thoughtful.

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

"Why do you know so much?"

"I'm not only an architect, but also an urban planner." Rahul tilted his head proudly.

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

People in the Slum are not so particular; it is common for a dozen or more people to be squeezed into one room.

The rooms in the office building can be slightly renovated and divided into thousands of single rooms.

They are all Slums, but the conditions vary.

One is a building with water and electricity, and the other is a thatched hut that can be blown down by a gust of wind, and they also have to face forced demolition by the municipal committee at any time.

It's settled. If there really is such a place, the people in Surl Slum will definitely move there happily.

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

"They are definitely old. According to regulations, they must be repaired before people can live in them, but you understand the situation in India..."

The whole country is a makeshift operation, and even the drinking water does not meet the standards. How can you expect the houses to be any good?

"I need to go and see it in person." Ron made a decision in his heart.

"Leaving them to those who need them might be better." Rahul shrugged.

Instead of letting a group of deadbeats occupy the place, it's better to find a home for the people in the Slum.

The current problem is how to get those few buildings. Ron temporarily has no idea.

Of course, those buildings will not be given to the people in the Slum for free. At the very least, rent, water, and electricity will still be collected.

Community management will also be entirely arranged by his own people. If handled well, it's possible that a large number of new believers will be added.

Leaving Rahul's studio, Ron immediately took his people straight to the northeast of Sur Electrical Appliances.

This area belongs to the boundary of the city skyline. It has residential areas, markets, various small workshops, and also decent-looking office buildings.

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

The office buildings Rahul mentioned were indeed not far from Sur Electrical Appliances. There was only that undeveloped wasteland between them.

The buildings looked like products of the 1970s, and many of the exterior facades were mottled.

As soon as Ron and his group got out of the car, they ran into a group of men and women, holding shovels, hammers, dustpans, and brooms, marching towards a wall.

"What are they doing?" He asked curiously.

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

"Boss, they are repairing the wall."

"Repairing the wall?"

"Yes."

"But that wall doesn't seem to have any problems."

The wall that the men and women surrounded not only had no problems, but also looked to be in good condition.

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

"They are going to tear down the wall there and repair another wall." Amor was very certain.

As expected, after roughly locating the place, those people immediately started digging holes where they had marked.

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

The corner of a building had a hole that needed to be repaired, and this was their job.

Ron frowned, looking at the building materials used for repair, which looked less durable than the original ones.

But there was no way. India did not have a professional civil engineer certification body, and all the training people received was substandard.

The sand mixed in the cement was dredged from the wild, carrying salt particles, silt, and feces, so even newly built houses looked weathered, as if gnawed by rats and insects.

The landlord refused to repair the building, so the tenants could only hire people to do it themselves. Whoever's wall was broken would repair it, but usually no one repaired it.

However, the hole this time was a bit outrageous. When the rainy season came, water poured in, so it had to be repaired.

The hired workers had no materials to repair with, so they could only tear down the existing wall in this area.

Repairing again and again, robbing Peter to pay Paul again and again.

Alright, Rahul said this was also a Slum, and he really didn't wrong it.

The sea to the west was also one of the culprits that ravaged these office buildings. It corroded their exterior walls, and moisture climbed into the walls, making the plaster inside damp and soft, and finally seeping out from the ceiling in liquid form.

Ron stood at the entrance of the nearest building, where a conspicuous notice board was hanging.

Notice: This building is a dangerous building and may collapse at any time. Those who enter do so at their own risk. The owner is not responsible for any loss of life or property arising therefrom -- Owner's Notice.

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

Before entering the corridor, all kinds of signs rushed towards the visitor's forehead.

Civil servant cram school, accountant training class, private bank, trading company...

The decoration of these offices was surprisingly good, some even had air conditioning, and the indicator lights on the computer mainframes were flashing.

But the public areas outside the offices were dilapidated. Where there should have been windows in the corridor, there were now several large holes, and the wall also had a notice posted saying "This building is a dangerous building and may collapse at any time."

Due to the rental law, landlords had almost no income from renting houses, and their only means of protest was not to do any repairs to their houses.

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

This building has ten floors, runs east-west, and each floor has about twenty to thirty offices.

Ron walked around, and there were people in every office.

Not far away, there were four other similar buildings.

There was no need to go to know that the situation there was similar.

"If the offices are modified, how many people do you think this building can accommodate?" Ron asked Amor next to him.

"If they squeeze in, six or seven thousand people is not a problem."

"Will there be trouble?"

"Public toilets."

Alright, that is indeed a problem.

The building was originally designed as an office building, and it simply couldn't achieve the level of having a bathroom in every office.

It is conceivable what the public toilets in the building would look like if six or seven thousand people poured in.

Swimming in a sea of feces?

The scene was too beautiful, Ron didn't dare to imagine.

"Do you have any suggestions?"

"Seal all the toilets in the building and build a larger public toilet behind it."

Amor's idea was very simple. Since there aren't enough, don't leave any.

To prevent those lazy people from wading into a cesspool rather than walking two extra steps downstairs.

To deal with the Indians in the Slum, you have to whip them.

"Write it down." Ron waved his hand, preparing to go downstairs.

"Boss, there is the owner's phone number here." Ashish pointed to a notice.

"No hurry, we'll get the land first."

Upgrading the Slum is the last thing to do.

Sur Industrial Park is the first step. He has to get that wasteland now.

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