Most realtors feel the approval may see a rise in property costs in the area by 40-50%.
Kalamboli boasts of the biggest McDonald’s outlet in Navi Mumbai and has already seen a 50 per cent increase in real estate prices in the last one year, from Rs 2,200 a square foot to Rs 3,300. On Monday, as the news about the environment ministry approval for the Navi Mumbai airport trickled in, real estate dealers along with those who have invested in properties were celebrating.
Reason: The town, which is located near Panvel and is just 5 kms away from the airport project site, is expected to see real estate prices shooting up further. “Though nothing will happen immediately, we see prices going up another 40-50 per cent once all approvals for the airport are in place,” says Ramesh Chawla, a property consultant in the area.
| REALTY CHECK | |
| Projects | (Rs cr) Cost |
| SEZ | 6,500 |
| 22.5 km Mumbai Trans Harbour Link | 7,700 |
| Real Estate | 15,000 |
| Navi Mumbai Metro | 3,500 |
| Mass railway transit & development schemes | 4,000 |
| Golf Course | 100 |
While some say Chawla is doing too much crystal-gazing and prices won’t go up much (HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, for example, thinks real estate prices have already peaked and there isn’t much scope of going up further), there is consensus on one thing: The face of Navi Mumbai will change forever as the airport will provide the fire power for putting several ambitious projects on the fast track. Hiranadani Group MD Niranjan Hiranandani says the immediate upshot of today’s decision would be that those projects, which were languishing, will take off.
Consider the scale of these projects: Once a dedicated four-lane (12 km) Sion-Panvel expressway and the 22.5-km six-lane trans-harbour bridge that will link South Mumbai to Nava are completed (these projects were so far mired in red tape mainly because of the tug of war over the airport project), it will take close to 40 minutes to reach the new airport from the Taj or Trident, which is far less than what it takes from South Mumbai to the existing airport at Santa Cruz. This is because the bridge will be extended to Khopoli on the Mumbai-Goa national highway as well as the Mumbai-Pune expressway. The trans-harbour bridge will also reduce the travel time to Pune, Goa, Chennai and Cochin substantially.
And then there are the Rs 3,000-crore metro and mono-rail projects (connecting Navi Mumbai to some of the suburbs in Mumbai), which will bring Mumbai closer to its twin city. The state government and its nodal agency City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) plan to undertake these projects at an investment of over Rs 20,000 crore on the public-private participation model. If these are not enough, local officials are also busy working on a blueprint for starting a hovercraft service that will help cover the distance between Navi Mumbai and South Mumbai in around 45 minutes.
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Cidco officials say the airport project will also give a boost to the plan for converting a nearby railway line to a Dedicated Freight Corridor. Officials also say the development of the Dronagiri Special Economic Zone (SEZ) over 3,500 hectares, in which Cidco has a 26 per cent equity and Reliance Industries the balance, was making slow progress so far. The pace is now expected to pick up. The SEZ, the officials say, will serve as a platform for transnational companies across the globe which can relocate their industrial or service units to Navi Mumbai and perhaps even compete with top free trade zones like Jebel Ali in Dubai.
The airport project, say officials, has also propelled Cidco to draw up other ambitious plans. Take Kharghar, for example, which is around 7 kms from the airport site. Kharghar is set to get a 18-hole golf course and a 80-hectare Central Park on the lines of London’s Hyde Park and New York’s Central Park. Also on the horizon is Bollywood Hills, a 100-hectare hill-side development modeled after its Hollywood namesake. While the first phase of the Central Park is complete, a 10-hole golf course would be ready by the end of this year.
Many say hill station Lonavala will also see a lot of developments and prices are expected to shoot up once the airport comes up. Adds a Cidco official: The airport will open up Maharashtra’s vast hinterland rich in agriculture, floriculture, hi-tech high value industries to world market.
Experts say courtesy the new airport, Navi Mumbai is expected to absorb the future growth in population, business and commercial activity of the region. Pranay Vakil, chairman, Knight Frank India, says all big cities in the world such as London and New York have multiple airports. This (the Navi Mumbai airport) will decongest Mumbai and there will be a lot development in areas which are not so dense. “The platform has been set. The government should now focus on connectivity,” vakil says.
HDFC’s Parekh agrees: “If the airport has to succeed in its objective, there has to be expressways and fast train facilities. But business activity will not move from Bandra Kurla Complex, Nariman Point and Parel, which are the business hubs. People will travel from the new airport to these hubs and this will not change,” he adds.