The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) found itself compelled to eliminate reservations on a minimum of 88 plots belonging to the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) in the conclusive Development Plan (DP) for the city's next 20 years, following intervention by the state government.
Upon submission of the final DP for the years 2018-2038 to the state government for approval, the civic body's initial proposal included reservations on 625 plots for diverse civic amenities. However, CIDCO contested this proposal and formally presented its objections to the plan.
Of the total 625 reservations, CIDCO had no objection to 240 plots, reserved by NMMC for different civic amenities. But on the remaining 385 plots, CIDCO asked either to delete them or was ready to discuss the future use of the plots. As per the final development plan, following state government notice to NMMC, a total of 537 reservations have been proposed.
With a number of mega infrastructure projects, Navi Mumbai emerged as one of the most sought after destinations for both residential and commercial, CIDCO does not want to handover plots to NMMC and approached the Urban Development Department. In the last three years, CIDCO auctioned around 4000 plots across Navi Mumbai worth over Rs 5000 crores. A few plots attracted a record price of Rs 6 lakh per sq meter in the city.
The NMMC published the DP 2018-2038 plan in August 2022 and invited objections and suggestions from citizens and other stakeholders. After giving a 20-day extension, during the 80 days period, the civic body received a total of 16,194 objections and suggestions.
However, the data presented in the draft DP, by the end of 2018, the civic body received a total of 619 plots from CIDCO while it demanded a total of 1543 plots for civic amenities. Of the total 619 plots received by NMMC, 411 plots have been developed and the remaining 208 plots have not yet been developed.
In addition, the civic body has also proposed a change in FSI upto of 0.5 to provide good quality sports facilities in the city. Similarly, the schools developed by CIDCO have become dangerous, necessitating redevelopment. There is a proposal to swap plots designated for playgrounds and school facilities in coordination with the redevelopment of these schools.
Navi Mumbai is a planned city and there is very little scope for further development. Even the draft development plan (DP) for 2018-2038 published by NMMC highlighted that the city is developed upto 95% with only 5% vacant land available for future development.