Planned to come up around a radial distance of about 25 km from the proposed international airport at Navi Mumbai, it was originally expected to be spread over 600 sq km or 60,000 hectare. But according to the development plan sanctioned by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis earlier this week, it will now come up on just over a 334-sq km plot.
This is a good 14,224 hectare less than the 476.24 sq km area occupied by Mumbai. However, it will still be bigger than Navi Mumbai (320 sq km). While the original idea1 was to undertake urban development of 308 villages in the six talukas of Thane, Uran, Karjat, Pen, Khalapur and Panvel in Thane and Raigad districts, this has now come down to 175 villages.
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NAINA’s plan was also impacted by the formation of the Panvel Municipal Corporation in October, 2016. “Considering the contiguity of the area, the state government is of the opinion that 35 villages from Khalapur tehsil and 14 villages from the Thane tehsil are required to be deleted from NAINA’s revised area and the said area is now revised to 175 villages,” stated the order issued by the government, notifying the sanctioned development plan, implementation of which will begin from October 16.
But CIDCO’s Vice-chairperson and Managing Director, Lokesh Chandra, supported the government’s decision to exclude the villages. “The decision was taken from the planning point of view. Areas that weren’t contiguous or were located along the road corridors being developed by the MSRDC were deleted so that these can be independently developed. It won’t impact the overall character and the plan of NAINA.”
At 334 sq km, Chandra said the revised area for NAINA was “still a big development exercise”.
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- 1. NAINA is the result of the conditions that the Union Environment and Forest Ministry had set in November, 2010, when it gave clearance for the Navi Mumbai International Airport. The ministry had stipulated that master plan and development plan of Navi Mumbai shall be revised and recast in view of the airport development