Infrastructure to Drive Realty in Navi Mumbai

Navi Mumbai is an important region of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). It was developed in 1972 to decongest the city of Mumbai. The region, since then, has developed into an almost self-sufficient town with a well-developed infrastructure, commercial and business establishments, industrial areas and residential nodes. The area has a good connectivity with suburban Mumbai. All these have led to a good growth of real estate in Navi Mumbai.

The governing bodies of Navi Mumbai, CIDCO and NMMC haven’t stopped there. There are more infrastructure projects coming up in the region which are further expected to drive real estate there.

Transport infrastructure

Navi Mumbai has a good number of roads that provide connectivity across different nodes in the region as well as Mumbai and Thane. Some of the important roads that provide connectivity within the region include Kalyan-Shilphata Road, Palm Beach Road, Uran Road and Thane-Belapur Road. While all these roads provide good connectivity to nodes within Navi Mumbai, roads such as Kalyan-Shilphata Road and Thane-Belapur Road provide connectivity to Thane and peripheral regions such as Kalyan-Dombivli. Another important road that connects the region to Thane is NH-4, alternatively known as Bangalore-Mumbai Highway.

Navi Mumbai is connected to suburban Mumbai via two bridges: Vashi and Airoli bridge. The Sion-Panvel Expressway, which is part of NH-4, connects the region to Vashi bridge. Both bridges witness heavy traffic. The region is also well connected to suburban Mumbai via railways. The railway stations in Navi Mumbai lie on the harbour line of the Mumbai suburban railway network.

There are regular NMMC as well as BEST buses providing public transportation between different parts of MMR. There are also regular local trains between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

Planned infrastructure

While the region has a good connectivity and accessibility, the local authorities are continuously putting their efforts to improve the infrastructure. This includes constructing several roads and the Navi Mumbai metro.

Some of the main highways include the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) that will connect Nhava-Sheva in Navi Mumbai to Sewri in Mumbai. This will significantly improve the connectivity between the two regions, while reducing the burden on Airoli and Vashi bridges. Apart from the two existent bridges, MMRDA has proposed to construct an elevated corridor between Navi Mumbai and Eastern Express Highway (EEH) at Ghatkopar. The MSRDC, which is the state’s road development authority, is currently widening the Sion-Panvel Expressway. Along with these major highways, there are various flyovers and arterial roads being constructed.

Apart from roadways, the Navi Mumbai metro as well as the Navi Mumbai International Airport are in pipeline. While the metro project is already being constructed, CIDCO recently acquired land around New Panvel region to construct the airport. The metro rail will significantly improve travel time across various nodes of Navi Mumbai, while the airport is being built to reduce the congestion at the Mumbai International Airport.

All these projects are at various levels of planning and execution.

Real estate impact

It is a given fact that wherever there is a highway, metro or an airport, the realty market in the surrounding areas boom. One example in Navi Mumbai is the Palm Beach Road, where the surrounding localities have already become premium locations. Vashi, Airoli and Kharghar are also few such examples. This is primarily due to the excellent connectivity and accessibility these projects offer, which motivate commercial establishments to spring up in these regions. These in turn, motivate more people to settle down in these localities and hence, prompt developers and builders to come up with new projects.

For example, the announcement of the Navi Mumbai metro project led to an increase in realty prices in several areas such as Kharghar and Kamothe. Property prices in Kharghar, which were at an average of about Rs 7,100 per sq. ft. during the third quarter of 2013 has gone up to Rs 10,600 per sq. ft. during the same period in 2014. The average property price in Belapur during the second quarter of 2013 was about Rs 8,100 per sq. ft., which went up to Rs 9,100 per sq. ft. by the same period in 2014.

Similarly, the existence of Palm Beach Road improved the prices of Sanpada from about Rs 11,500 during the second quarter of 2013 to about Rs 13,000 per sq. ft. during the second quarter of 2014. The announcement of the Navi Mumbai International Airport has already hiked the prices in areas such as New Panvel and Kamothe by almost 15-25 per cent within a year.

While the price hike in these regions may be attributed to speculations in many of these areas, with some of the projects inching forward, the prices may be expected to start going up once the actual work begins. The increase in property prices may also be attributed to the demand seen from investors as well as buyers in these regions.

This is indicative that with the set of new infrastructure projects planned and executed in the region, there will be a definite growth in residential real estate market.