Maximum City. Finally!
This year, Mumbai will begin to close a
two decade-long gap in its infrastructure development as a key bridge, road and metro line become operational.
The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, India's longest bridge, will open to traffic on Jan. 12, followed by the coastal road south in February and the north phase of the
island city metro line by mid-year.
These three projects account for a third of the close to $30 billion in rail and road projects that will become operational over the next few years.
The construction bonanza, while currently
choking the city’s roads and air, will supplement the overburdened suburban rail system — it carries three times its capacity — with a 360-kilometer metro network. City authorities expect this wil l
reverse a decline in the use of public transport, shorten commutes and reduce pollution.
The trans harbour link will speed access to the satellite city of Navi Mumbai on the mainland and expand the urban sprawl to produce a
third city.
Six large road and tunnel projects will encircle the island city, forming a ring road of sorts. The interconnected new roads will enable circular movement of traffic which can overcome the constraints posed by Mumbai’s linear geography, said Ashwini Bhide, additional municipal commissioner. Bhide is overseeing the coastal road and the island city metro line projects.
Together, these projects will also shape where 22 million Mumbaikars live and work.
Mumbai $30 Billion Makeover
Mumbai is the
densest metropolitan region in the world with over 50,000 people per square kilometer versus Delhi's 29,000 and Shanghai's 28,000, according to recent data analyzed by Duncan Smith, a lecturer at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London.
It is also among the most expensive in the world even as it ranks below global and local peers on
ease of living.
While New Delhi was
modernized ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Mumbai's decades-old plans remained buried in bureaucracy and environmental concerns in a largely reclaimed coastal city.
Now, these projects will re-establish Mumbai’s competitive edge as they will give impetus to development not only along them but will unlock many new areas through better connectivity, Bhide said.
Affordable housing in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region would not be a distant dream, she said.
Well, it's not yet in reach either. Mumbai home prices will
continue to rise, especially in the northern suburbs, said two realty analysts I spoke to this week.
Housing demand in the metropolitan city is almost twice what it was in 2019 and average prices up 30%, said Prashant Thakur, regional director at property consultant Anarock. Improved transport infrastructure will reduce load on the island city but don’t expect any major correction in prices, he said.
Meanwhile, in anticipation of better connectivity, cheaper northern suburbs, like Borivali and Dahisar, are closing the price gap with areas further south, like Santacruz,
according to a report by real estate services company Colliers. Only new land supply on the mainland will be relatively affordable, said Vimal Nadar, senior director of research at Colliers.
That may be the biggest game changer for Mumbaikars and also India's top two billionaires who have large property holdings in the area.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd. owns an over
500 acre office complex near Navi Mumbai and has significant interests in the neighboring
Navi Mumbai Integrated Industrial township spread over 5,200 acres.
Not far from that township, Gautam Adani's
flagship company is developing a new airport over 2,800 acres.
The construction site of Navi Mumbai International Airport due to open by December 2024.
About 75% of the metropolitan region’s residents live in the suburbs and commute to the island city for work. The trans harbour link could change that, said SVR Srinivas, former head of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
“Not only will commute time to Mumbai decrease significantly, but I also see people travelling to Navi Mumbai from Mumbai because it is quicker and there is ample commercial real estate options for companies,” Srinivas said. He now serves as officer on special duty for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project,
another ambitious project, managed by the Adani Group, that will over 10 years add to Mumbai's realty stock.
The residential and commercial trends will become clearer as more roads and metro lines become operational. As will the costs. Of project delays and
cost escalations,
of felled trees and tunnels under the city's only large park, and of climate impact — there's no publicly available comprehensive assessment of how climate proof these projects are in a city
inundated with rain every monsoon and vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Eight big road and rail projects.
www.bloomberg.com
asia.nikkei.com
