Built on hype?
october 1987: Department for International Development, then known as the British Overseas Development Administration (ODA), proposes a slum project for Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
march 1988: Assistance from the UK worth Rs 39 crore for the Indore Habitat Improvement Project for upgrading 183 slums (housing 80,000 families) over five years.
1990: The project gets underway.
january 1993: Then Prime Minister of UK John Major visits the site and is "very pleased'. The project's duration is extended to 1995 and aid to Rs 42.4 crore.
mid-1993: Complaints of water-borne diseases surface. Cross-contamination of drinking water and sewage lines. First death due to jaundice is reported.
july 1994: In the UK, the Building and Social Housing Foundation presents the World Habitat Award to the project for "developing a...successful approach to slum improvement'. Project duration is further extended to 1997 and funding to Rs 60.5 crore. Rains, meanwhile, compound residents' misery.
june 1996: Indore's slum networking included in the national best practices and selected as a global best practice.
1997: ODA detects major sanitation problems in an assessment. The Indore Development Authority denies the scale of the problem and attributes it to a poor sample.
june 1998: Deaths due to malaria and water-borne diseases reported. Over half of the drinking water samples collected are found unsafe.
october 1998: Project bags the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for "transforming the environment and improving the quality of life by providing a clean and liveable habitat for its citizens'!