Navi Mumbai in DANGER!!!!

A Shadow harboring over Navi Mumbai.

Some where in the far end of this city lies the dark clouds waiting calmly for its arrival in this rapidly growing city of Navi Mumbai, As often it is mistaken that nothing wrong can happen to the fastest growing company or even a city for this case. Ironically in today’s fast growing world it is the speed that kills! Learning a bit from the famous quote, “Dig a well, well before you are thirsty!” The city of 21st century can really make it up to the stature of any international city but provided it doesn’t overlook the potholes of problems. These petite problems are often not seen under the thick air of progress and development.

With property rates nearly doubling in a year and is still ascending, an international airport to be proud of, the coming up of SEZ future accelerating infrastructural and industry growth , Asia’s 2nd largest bridge, A Trans-Harbour link – Nhava Sewri Sea Link shortening the distance to colaba by just half an hour, Navi Mumbai has a line of developing projects that by 2012 will change the face of this city.
But apart from government, nobody seems to be happy. A common man here has his own list of problems that the government is overlooking to aid the development.
Mr. Chinoy Mehta, a business man from vashi points out that though development is every where, electricity still remains a problem for everone. He comments saying, “ electricity is one of the basic requirement in this modern era but regular power cuts has created ripples in not only family but business life as well. The government firstly failed in recognizing the urgency before time and now with so many months passing by, it has even failed to have alternate methods for this problem. At last it’s the common people who are suffering”

Talking to Mr. R. B. Munde, Executive engineer for Vashi-Airoli Division says, “ There is a demand of nearly 14500 megawatt of electricity in the city and a supply of just 9500 megawatt is actually aiding the power cut.” The 500 cr projects (residential + commercial) lined up in the city will definitely add future load and eventually power cut would become a part of this modern city. Though Mr. Munde stated that, “ The supply figure would increase to nearly 15000 megawatt in next 5 years as against the demand of nearly 17000 megawatt and thus narrowing the difference between demand and supply.” He also mentioned about the various alternate power sources for individual building and commercial complexes and even street lights in this case in form of solar energy plant.“ Though the initial cost is high , it has proved to be highly economical and would reduce the load off the corporation.”

The plans of the NMMC looks a bit stretched but it is only time that could decide the stake of the government and the rising demand of electricity.

Throwing some light on the roads of Navi Mumbai, Mr. shankar , traveling regularly by his indica in an around navi Mumbai says, “ The roads are just getting choked everyday by the rising no. of vehicles in navi Mumbai. Take for instance the arenja corner in Sec 17, Vashi is heavily jammed during rush hours and in absence of police, drivers don’t even mind breaking the signals. Various small nodes have the problem of buildings opening directly into these nodes causing traffic congestion often.

Talking to City Engineer Mr. Mohan Dagaonkar says, “ Any kind of development in the city is going to put pressure on the roads but nothing much could be done in lines of road widening as these roads are neighboured by plots for buildings and commercial complexes. Ideally a road is accompanied by service roads and an extra parking space which is not seen in major part of navi Mumbai and hence options like flyovers have to be thought of. Various plans have been put forward before the government under the Jawaharal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission(JNURM) such as providing multi layered parking space at various nodes of navi mumbai especially one below the gardens in sec 17 to decongest the traffic in this area and even flyovers at major junctions of the city including The Arenja Corner , sec 17 Vashi.” His has a very clear vision for navi Mumbai for the next 25 years and says that all government activities are in line with the development of the infrastructure and the industries. He also promised of “pothole” free roads during rainy season at major junctions of navi Mumbai such as Vashi – Turbhe , Thane Belapur, Vashi – koper khernaine etc.”


Though all these pictures looks glossy from a distance, the real picture could only be revealed with time to come. All projects are still at planning stage and based on certain expectations of population rise in the city. The government is not yet prepared to fight the sudden rise in population due to the growth of industry which would definitely put stress on these already stressed amenities.
These thundering dark clouds are still at bay but mere ignorance would shatter the dreams of the city of 21st century.