Free homes spur enclave renovation

MUMBAI, India - Farida Kachwala is vacating her family's cramped home of 80 years, one of thousands receiving modern apartments through a project that hopes to transform Mumbai's historic Bhendi Bazaar from a dilapidated ghetto into a slick Singapore-like enclave.

Six hundred million dollars is being spent to demolish hundreds of rundown low-rise buildings in the dirty colonial-era market and replace them with shiny skyscrapers that will house 20,000 Dawoodi Bohras, a sect of Shia Muslims, who have made the area their home for decades.

"We have many problems here. It's smelly because there's sewage and garbage everywhere and the wooden stairs are really steep and dangerous. I'm so happy that we're moving," says Kachwala.