India, Sept. 13 -- This year's record-breaking flooding of the Mithi River has brought hope that an old promise will be kept. Residents of Kranti Nagar and Sandesh Nagar, two of several flood-prone slum settlements on the river's banks, will be resettled in the HDIL Premier complex for Project-Affected Persons (PAPs) in Kurla west.

After being promised resettlement as PAPs of an airport rehabilitation plan that hasn't quite taken off, 630 families from these two slum colonies will finally be rehoused by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

But the residents are not exactly holding their breath. To begin with, one of eight dilapidated buildings of the HDIL Premier housing complex will be repaired, to make the sma...