In order to provide better infrastructure to many satellite towns of Mumbai, the Maharashtra Government has given its nod to the inclusion of six new municipal corporations to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). These areas include Vasai, Panvel, Alibaug, Pen, Palghar, and Khalapur.
In order to ease the increasing population inside the Mumbai city, the government has notified MMR in 1967. Its governing body MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) was established in 1975. With this now MMR covers an area of 6,355 km2.
MMRDA was formed to look after the planning and infrastructural developments in these satellite towns. With this inclusion, now MMR has a total of eight municipal corporations i.e. Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi- Nizamapur, Vasai-Virar, and Mira-Bhayandar. However, there are 9 municipal corporations in the MMR that include Kulgaon-Badlapur, Uran, Alibaug, Pen, Matheran, Karjat, Khopoli, Palghar, and Ambarnath.
Welcoming the move, a senior MMRDA official said, “With a rise in Mumbai population, many people are moving towards these satellite towns to have better living standards. Inclusion of these localities in MMR region will help in fast pace infrastructural development that will further boost both residential and commercial real estate market.”
He further stated that there is a number of infrastructure projects currently proposed in these regions. Some of them include Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi highway, Mumbai-Porbandar project, Virar-Alibaug multimodal corridor, Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, Mumbai-Surat expressway, Palghar district commercial centre, Navi Mumbai International Airport, and Mumbai Metro corridor.
This residential real estate market of these areas have already seen an upsurge in the last few years among those home buyers who dreamt to buy a home in Mumbai but due to high property price, it was out of their pocket. With better connectivity and other developments, home buyers are moving towards these areas to own a home in much budget-friendly rates. The inclusion will further spruce up the realty market of these areas, suggest experts.