10 July,2009 11:05 AM IST | | Payal Kamat
Did you know that commuting from Vashi to Wadala takes approximately 30-40 minutes by train and roughly an hour by road? Or that the Vashi-Panvel belt boasts of a fashion institute, a hospitality college and a cricket stadium? If not, then we introduce you to the highs of staying in this region and why Navi Mumbai is said to be Mumbai's answer to space crunch.
This region is well-connected to Mumbai by road and rail networks. The Sion-Panvel highway makes travel easy by road, while the harbour line trains ply to CST at regular intervals. Within Navi Mumbai, the BEST and rickshaws make commuting trouble-free. Since it's on the outskirts of Mumbai, travelling to places like Matheran, Karjat, Alibaug, Khandala, Lonavala, is hardly time-consuming.
The Airoli-Mulund bridge has made it easier for people to travel from Airoli to Mulund, and surrounds as well as to the western suburbs via the Mulund Goregaon Link Road.
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Infrastructure
The Navi Mumbai belt has a number of flyovers and the roads are wide. Areas like Vashi, Sanpada, Kharghar, CBD Belapur, Mahape, Airoli have a number of reputed commercial establishments. "Two commercial hotels and a mall are going to be added to Navi Mumbai's commercial hub, Vashi," reveals Suresh Wavia, MD, Ravechi Group. New Panvel also has a Reliance SEZ coming up. Whereas, the proposed international airport, Central Park and Sewri-Nhava Sheva Link at Kharghar has brought a boom to the realty market here.
And not to lag behind in terms of basic infrastructure, Navi Mumbai has reputed schools and colleges and a number of well-known hospitals.
Recreation
Though a well-inhabited town, Navi Mumbai is equally scenic and has a good green cover. Many homes have views of wide roads, mountain ranges and water bodies like the Taloja creek and Pandavkhada waterfall.
Inorbit, Centre One and Raghuleela Mall near Vashi railway station are the region's entertainment hubs. The Palm Beach Galleria and City Centre on Palm Beach Road are quite popular with the residents here. Sanpada has upcoming malls like Affairs and Full Stop. Airoli has Max mall and an upcoming one called Ripplez in sector 8.
Real estate
Nerul has one of Navi Mumbai's premier residential townships - Seawoods Estate, phase two of which is under construction. The Palm Beach side of Nerul is also seeing good development. Builders like Goodwill Developers, Haware, Gajra Group, B Raheja Builders, Sapphire Homes Pvt Ltd are coming up with good projects in Airoli. While Kharghar is seeing construction by builders like Arihant Universal, Armstrong Group, Satyam Developers, Avenue Infrastructure, and National Builders.
In fact, every area in the belt is seeing tremendous housing development and there's a balance mix of luxury and affordable housing projects. And the icing on the cake is that the property prices are much competitive than in Mumbai.
"In Kharghar, the estimated growth is around Rs 71,000 per sq metre, so you can imagine the kind of demand this area has. Projects on the Palm Beach Road are selling at Rs 6,000 plus per sq ft. In areas like Kamothe, low budget homes and affordable homes are making good sales," says Wavia. He added that in the past three months there has been around 60-70 flat bookings every month in all their projects.
So if you have been pondering on where to start your house hunt, checking out Navi Mumbai is not a bad idea.u00a0
