Retired Army officer Brig Mahesh Mathur is witness to the sea change that has come about in Navi Mumbai since the 1990s when he bought his house in Nerul, to the north of Navi Mumbai. That was a time when one had to take a detour of 20 km through Thane in the northeast of Mumbai, to go to the main city. Two decades later, thesame area is home to a large number of residential and commercial projects, hotels, schools and other frills of urban landscape.

Now, with the newly opened eastern freeway, the once far-off suburb is just a 40-minute drive from the island city of south Mumbai.

According to the 2011 census, the population of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) grew by 6.4% to 20.52 million, over a 10-year period. Residential and commercial real estate projects, schools, IT parks or business centres, hotels and retail zones have mushroomed in areas like Thane and Navi Mumbai in the last five years, which aided in the growth of the Mumbai conurbation.

Kalamboli, Khandeshwar, Uran, Kamothe and Ulwe, on the eastern side of MMR, are some of the far-off villages and small towns that are seeing signs of rapid urbanisation, with some of the areas forming a part of Navi Mumbai. Naigaon and Kalyan are some of the other areas developing on the northern side of MMR. Projects of key realtors like Lodha Developers, Runwal, Marvel, Arihant Superstructures and Marathon are offering umpteen residential options.

?Navi Mumbai has changed dramatically in the past few years. The area has big educational institutions like DY Patil and SIES, malls, multiplexes and chains of exotic restaurants, which were probably not imaginable a few years ago,? says Mathur, who heaves a sigh of relief as he says that despite all development, ?there is ample space to breathe?.

The development is now well expanding towards Panvel in Navi Mumbai, over 50 km from Colaba. ?This area has been planned well by the authorities, and developers started moving to this side due to paucity of land in the island city. If not for the ghats on the way, Mumbai-Pune would have been a seamless city. In any case, reaching Pune is easier than going to Nariman Point,? he adds.

However, the more serious part of the point Mathur is making is that rapid urbanisation is fast diluting the geographical boundaries of cities. Thane, Navi Mumbai, and parts of Raigarh district became part of Mumbai?s urban landscape in the last decade. However, with city centres getting more and more expensive, congested and urban infrastructure bursting at the seams, it is only recently that a large chunk of the population has started residing in some of these areas.

?Boisar, Virar, Ambernath, Badlapur and Panvel are witnessing rapid development. Also, with the availability of larger land parcels in these locations, there are many township projects coming up, which are being preferred by the buyers,? says Rayomand Dastur, executive VP, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate.

Statistics support Dastur?s point. According to Liases Foras, the eastern side of Badlapur, for example, has seen a CAGR of 64% in the residential supply since March 2009, Naigaon has seen a 54% jump, while Ulwe, being touted as by far the best investment destination by most industry experts, has seen a whopping 208% increase. Thane (West) alone has seen the 23.58 million sq ft of residential supply go up to 48.07 million sq ft, a CAGR of 19%.

?There was a time when Thane?s boundary ended at Sooraj Water Park on Godhbunder Road. However, urban sprawls have moved way farther. From the island city, distance to Thane is 23 km, but development there has expanded up to some 45 km now,? says Pankaj Kapoor, managing director, Liases Foras.

The change in Navi Mumbai is also evident. Developed in 1972 as a new urban township of Mumbai, it now boasts some of the biggest names in hospitality like Fortune by ITC, The Park and Four Points by Sheraton. Domestic fashion brands like Lifestyle, Pantaloons and Westside, among several others, occupy large spaces in malls like Inorbit, Vashi Central and Pentagon. The aim is to expand the reach further down to Panvel.

Vashi?s Inorbit mall by the Raheja Group has seen a five-fold rise in footfalls since its opening in 2008, says Kishore Bhatija, CEO, Inorbit Malls. The mall attracts a crowd of 8 lakh per month now, he adds.

Agrees Sumant Kant, VP and GM, Four Points by Sheraton, in Vashi. ?Navi Mumbai is well positioned in terms of connectivity, commerce and trade. The new highways connecting Navi Mumbai to the city provide unmatched competency,? says Kant, who feels that an expansion of local and tourist population has greatly benefitted the hotel. ?Increasing opportunities offered through food and beverage events, weekend packages, weekend buffet offers, etc, are a novelty in the area which entice people to go ahead and explore,? he adds.

Boosting the urban expansion are the several high-ticket infrastructure projects in and around the city of Mumbai, which will play a key role in further development of these new found geographies. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the nodal town planning authority, has kickstarted several such projects over the last two to four years. Over R63,000 crore worth of projects that include Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, south-west elevated railway corridor, Santacruz Chembur link road, metro rail, monorail and the eastern freeway are expected to provide good connectivity to new areas as well as aid in their growth.

?We have seen good demand in our Ajmera i-Land project which is close to monorail, eastern freeway and the Trans Harbour Link. As the projects start getting commissioned, we will see an increase in demand. Wadala has got a major facelift already and now it will be well connected to south Mumbai and the western suburbs,? says Dhaval Ajmera, director, Ajmera Realty and Infrastructure India.

With the population base expanding and people?s staying preferences changing towards suburbs, Mumbai is seeing development of alternative business centres as well. Bandra Kurla Complex, close to the upmarket suburb of Bandra, is one such example.

However, not all are optimistic about these trends. ?Mumbai and Delhi have no future as far as IT-related real estate is concerned. Traditionally, IT companies find cost-effectiveness in tier II and III cities because the wages and skill availability are better there. Large cities are only for highly skilled workers whom companies can pay higher wages but for all the outsourcing or service migratory related jobs, other cities fit the bill better,? says Ganesh Natarajan, vice chairman and CEO, Zensar Technologies.

New facade

Some infrastructure projects that aim to change the face of Maximum City:

METRO RAIL LINE 1

The proposed route of Metro Rail Line 1, running over a total distance of 11.4 km, is Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar. It is being built by Reliance Infrastructure (Rinfra) and Veolia Transport (France) at a cost of R2,356 crore. The expected deadline of the project, which commenced in February 2008, is 2013. Work on the first three kilometres of the 11.4-km elevated tracks is complete and expected to open to the public in September. The final stretch of 8.4 km from Andheri to Ghatkopar is expected to be operational by December-end, which will cut travel time on this route to 21 minutes from the present 90 minutes by road.

METRO RAIL LINE 2

With a total distance of 31.8 km (elevated), the proposed route of Metro Rail Line 2 is Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd. It is being built at a cost of R8,250 crore by Reliance Infrastructure and SNC Lavalin (Canada). However, it is stuck due to pending environmental clearances.

METRO RAIL LINE 3

Metro Rail Line 3, whose tentative date of commencement is 2013, will be spread over a total distance of 34 km (underground) over the proposed route of Colaba-Bandra-Seepz. The project, to be built at a cost of R24,430 crore, is expected to be ready by 2019.

EASTERN FREEWAY

The proposed route of the Eastern Freeway, with a total distance of 16.9 km, is PD?Mello Road via Mumbai Port Trust via Anik-Panjarpol Link Road to Ghatkopar Mankhurd Link Road. It is being built by Simplex Infrastructure, Madhucon Projects and J Kumar Infra at a cost of R1,265 crore. The project commenced in 2008. The stretch from PD?Mello Road to Chembur has been opened to the public. The drive will save commuters 30 minutes; the signal-free road will also ease traffic on the Mumbai Port Road, providing quicker connectivity between the island city and its eastern suburbs.

MONORAIL PROJECT

Divided into two phases, the Monorail project will be spread over a total distance of 20 km. The proposed routes of the two phases are Wadala-Chembur (8.8 km; Phase 1) and Wadala-Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk (Jacob Circle) (11.20 km; Phase 2). Being built by Larsen and Toubro and Scomi Engineering at a cost of R2,460 crore, the project?s expected deadline is August 2013 for Phase I. Phase II is likely to be commissioned in 2014.

MUMBAI TRANS

HARBOUR LINK

Aiming to connect Sewri in the island city to Nhava in Navi Mumbai, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link is expected to commence around early 2014. Though the companies involved are yet to be decided, consortiums led by SREI Infrastructure, GMR Infrastructure, Gammon Infrastructure, IRB Infrastructure, and Tata Realty and Infrastructure were shortlisted last year in May. To be built at a cost of R9,630 crore, the total proposed distance is 22 km. The expected deadline is 2019. Under consideration for the past 30 years, the 22-km link will cut the current distance between the island city and Navi Mumbai by 17 km and reduce travel time by one hour.

SAHAR ELEVATED ROAD

Expected to be completed by end-2013, Sahar Elevated Road will provide a direct link from Western Express Highway to Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Larsen and Toubro will build the project at a cost of over R300 crore for a total distance of 2 km. The project, which commenced in 2009, is expected to be completed by end-2013.

MILAN RAIL OVERBRIDGE

A rail overbridge at Milan Subway aims to provide east-west connectivity. J Kumar Infrastructure has finished building the overbridge at a cost of R83 crore. The project, spread over

700 m, was commissioned on May 24, 2013.

SANTACRUZ CHEMBUR LINK ROAD

Patel Engineering and Gammon India are working on the Santacruz Chembur Link Road, which will connect Santacruz to Chembur via Kurla. It will be spread over a total distance of 6.45 km and is being built at a cost of R453 crore. The project commenced in 2003, and by the year-end, Mumbaikars can drive down the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road?now four years behind schedule?which would cut travel time by half.

With inputs from Vaishnavi Bala, Rhik Kundu and Shruti Ambavat