Navi Mumbai – In Short

Navi Mumbai, one of the important cities in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is planned and developed by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO). With Mumbai bursting at its seams due to mounting traffic, burgeoning population, sprawling slums, high pollution levels, no lung space to breathe, skyrocketing prices, and so on, Navi Mumbai comes as a perfect alternative for most Mumbaikars.

 

The area was introduced in 1971 as the new urban township of Mumbai by the Government of Maharashtra (GoM). For this new township, a new public-sector undertaking was established – City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO). Navi Mumbai is situated across two districts namely Thane and Raigad.

 

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) was formed with an idea of transferring the development rights of 9 of the 14 nodes in the Navi Mumbai area for its jurisdiction. The 9 nodes maintained by NMMC are namely Vashi, Sanpada, Juinagar, Nerul, CBD Belapur, Turbhe, Kopar Khairane, Ghansoli and Airoli, with the physical and social infrastructure already in place.

 

Navi Mumbai has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few decades. It is now home to many educational institutes offering courses in several streams. Also, many MNCs have their presence in the city with their head/branch offices – which makes the city an attractive business hub. Navi Mumbai is well designed in a manner to create a balanced life between corporate, leisure and residential life for the residents, making it one of the most liveable cities of the country.

 

Navi Mumbai has a robust infrastructure, is well connected to other major areas of MMR and the state and is relatively less polluted compared to Mumbai. The city has a good public transportation system with Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT), the transport wing of NMMC, and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) serving the bus commuters and allowing to travel all over Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalyan-Dombivli-Badlapur, Panvel-Taloja, Uran-Ulwe, etc.

 

Navi Mumbai is also known as an educational hub as it houses many educational institutes offering primary and secondary education with colleges and universities offering various courses in the field of Medical, Engineering, Design, Management, Hospitality, etc. Apart from education, the city also offers adequate healthcare facilities to meet the primary, secondary and tertiary needs of the residents with prominent players like AHEL, Fortis Healthcare, etc. operating their multispecialty hospitals. The city is home to various knowledge parks offering commercial spaces to the buzzing IT-ITeS sectors with many industry majors having their presence here including L&T Infotech, Accenture, UBS and Capgemini among others.

 

Commercial parks such as The Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC), Mindspace Corporate park etc. are spread across the Thane-Belapur road which is also home to the commercial developments in the region. The MIDC present in the Mahape-Airoli belt offers manufacturing facilities to enhance their presence in the region. Reputed developers such as Paradise Group, Raheja, L&T, Akshar Group, etc. are present in Navi Mumbai with Residential and Commercial spaces to give the city a flavour of mixed development catering to the needs of its residents. To support the corporate and leisure demand, Navi Mumbai offers immense hospitality options which are operational across the budget, mid-market and premium category.

In fact, Navi Mumbai is also steadily becoming the newest commercial hub with several developers opting to build many industrial parks and office hubs due to its easy connectivity to both Mumbai and Pune, well-planned infrastructure, relatively affordable office rentals, among others. Following the rising residential and commercial developments, retail segment is also catching pace with two major malls planned in Navi Mumbai in the coming years.

 

Ample land availability, aggressive infrastructure development, seamless connectivity to prime areas in MMR and relatively lower property prices across segments (residential, commercial, retail) have made Navi Mumbai a major attraction for builders, prospective homebuyers and corporate giants alike in recent times. And, despite this rapid growth, Navi Mumbai continues to be defined by its spatial openness with multiple green belts, parks and water surfaces that maintain a balanced landscape in the city. This is eventually leading to high residential demand by youngsters and elders alike.

 

Thus, all these developments coupled with mega infra projects (including the Navi Mumbai international airport) on the anvil, it is likely that the city will see a spurt in real estate activity in the times to come. In fact, it is likely to be the top investment choice in MMR for many people who are migrating into the region for better job opportunities.