Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Good and bad sides of the city' that was published in Newsband

Good and bad sides of the city

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The collapse of the illegal building in Shil Phata in Mumbra can be traced to the illegal builder-politician-bureaucrat nexus. There is a need of cracking down on this illegal development. Navi Mumbai is not learning from Mumbra’s experience and illegal constructions continue here. It is true that both Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) have been carrying out demolitions after demolitions of illegal structures but yet this problem doesn’t seem to end.  

There is a lot of thing common between Navi Mumbai and Mumbra. Both are located on the fringes of Mumbai city. Both pull people through the attractions of affordable houses, larger railways stations, recreation spots, golf courses and open spaces – a marketed better lifestyle in the satellite city as advocated by an active Municipal Corporation of Navi Mumbai.

But side by side with this development, the illegal housing ‘mafia’ has found a market for itself. The building activity has grown exponentially. It has become more affordable to buy a pucca house in Navi Mumbai, than live in a shanty elsewhere. These factors have become the attraction of the town over the years. The local officials too have got completely absorbed in the rampant unofficial nature of building construction.

Navi Mumbai has become a legal satellite city housing a range of the middle classes but something drastic needs to be done to control the housing mafia and illegal constructions.

There are positive sides of Navi Mumbai too. Navi Mumbai has been developed as a planned city and a counter-magnet for Mumbai. It has been developed as an independent, fully self-contained metro city. The chemical, pharmaceutical, engineering, textile processing, electronics, oil and oil processing, paper, plastic, steel and food industries in Taloja and the IT units and special economic zones in the Thane-Belapur industrial belt of Navi Mumbai all offer vast job opportunities. As a result, a large segment of the service class and mid-income segment people now reside in Navi Mumbai.

Kalamboli, Kamothe, Airoli, Ghansoli are also seeing a lot of residential developments. Most of Vashi, Sanpada and Nerul are inhabited, and residential property rates in these areas are high. They are in the northern part of Navi Mumbai, which is closer to Mumbai when compared to the southern part.

However, after the announcement of state-level developments and infrastructure projects like Navi Mumbai SEZ, Kalamboli SEZ and the Nhava-Sheva Sealink (most of which are planned towards the southern part of Navi Mumbai), overall residential pricing in Navi Mumbai has experienced remarkable appreciation. New residents in Navi Mumbai are opting for better options in areas like Kharghar, Koparkhairne, Airoli, Ghansoli, Seawoods, Kamothe, Kalamboli and Panvel.

Of these, Kalamboli has emerged as a strong contender today. Kalamboli is situated on the Mumbai-Panvel road, strategically close to the Taloja industrial area. It is on the Mumbai-Pune highway as well. It is a bustling area, self-contained in terms of job creation and servicing the local public.

Thus Navi Mumbai has its positive and negative sides but on the whole it is a place worth living in.