Prince Charles visited slums which cover 175 hectares of Mumbai

The sprawling Dharavi region of Bombay - also known as Mumbai - is made up of ramshackle corrugated iron sheds and is home to more than one million people.

Prince Charles spent nearly an hour with the residents, asking questions about hygiene conditions and basic amenities such as water and electricity.

He also visited a community development programme working to build new concrete tower blocks to replace the slums, before finishing his nine-day tour of the country on Wednesday afternoon.

Huge piles of litter

During the visit, Prince Charles gained an insight into the lives of a family of four living in a six feet square room.

Clean, but basic, the home is shared by a rickshaw driver, his wife and their two children.

"I hope his visit will give us a better house," they said through an interpreter.

Part of the area had been tidied up for the Prince's visit, but the party still encountered huge piles of litter and the odd dead rat.

Charles' visit to India has seen him sample a wide spectrum of society, including former royalty, businessmen, film stars and poorer members of the community.

Charles, who earlier visited Delhi and Rajasthan during his tour, later flew from Bombay to Oman on Wednesday.