For the first time, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has published its draft Development Plan (DP) for the city’s development for the period of 2018-38.
The draft DP projects the population of the city to be around 28 lakhs by 2038 and there is a need to upgrade the infrastructure and other amenities to meet the demand.
As per the 2011 census, the population of the city was 11.2 lakh and by 2018, it reached 15 lakhs, with around 50,000 increase in population every year.
Since Navi Mumbai is a planned city, there is minimal scope for further development. Even in DP, the civic body admitted that the city is developed up to 95% with only 5% vacant land available for future growth.
Now, the draft DP for the city’s needs up to 2038 has been put up for suggestions and objections. The first DP was prepared by CIDCO and sanctioned by the government in 1979.
Even after its formation, NMMC has been following the development control regulations (DCR) formed by CIDCO and there has been a demand for fresh DP to look into micro issues. CISCO’s 1979 DP was a structural development plan.
A key aspect of the plan is the provision of 699 hectares – about 70 times the size of Azad Maidan – for open spaces such as gardens, playgrounds and tree belts and this works out to three hectares per person. In addition, there is a reservation on 625 plots for different purposes of which a maximum of 193 plots are in Nerul followed by 97 plots in Ghansoli.
NatConnect Foundation director BN Kumar opined that this space falls woefully short of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the WHO standards.
AMRUT envisages a benchmark area of about 10,000 sq meters per thousand population, whereas NMMC open space works out to 3,000 sq meters. (0.3 ha per 1,000 people).
The draft DP says the residential zone is generally proposed so as to accommodate the projected population at the end of the plan period i.e. for the year 2038.
The density of population is generally considered as 250 tenements per hectare. For this Draft DP, the density of population is considered as 350 tenements per hectare.
Developers body worried
The developer's body says that the new DP will create problems as there are two agencies namely NMMC and CIDCO working in the city. Even after publishing the draft DP, the civic body will not have its own development control regulations (DCR) as there are already unified development control and promotion regulations (UDCPR).
Haresh Chheda, president of Builders Association of Navi Mumbai (BANM) said the builders were having a lot of problems as they had to follow the DCR of CIDCO and kept demanding fresh DP and DCR of NMMC. However, the state government brought in unified development control and promotion regulations (UDCPR) in 2020 and there will be no separate DCR.
“Normally, DP is prepared on virgin land. However, in Navi Mumbai, CIDCO has already developed and executed leases being the land owner and town planning authority. Now, the new DP will supersede the existing one. This might create some technical issues, especially for developers,” said Chheda.
