The making of Navi Mumbai

He came to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1963 and became directly involved in infrastructure projects through CIDCO, the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra. At that time, recalls retired IAS officer R.C. Sinha who headed CIDCO, Navi Mumbai – then only a small township of Vashi, had a population of just 30,000. “We recognised the potential of the new city, and endeavoured to shift Mumbai residents there,” he said while participating in a recent ‘brainstorming session’ organised by Mumbai Press Club on “Making Mumbai a Liveable, Modern City”. However, he noted, the area lacked basic amenities like water supply, direct-dialling telephones and round-the-clock electricity. “Establishing a railway line was crucial for its development, and CIDCO bore 67 per cent of the railway construction costs, with the Maharashtra government contributing the rest.” With the objective of getting people working in Bombay to living in Navi Mumbai, CIDCO introduced an agricultural market in the new city, relieving the congestion in South Mumbai significantly. Sinha then faced new challenges when he was building the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, a development for which he is best known. These included the acquisition of 980 hectares of land amidst hurdles such as forest and environmental clearances, for which he enlisted political support and created expedited processes to achieve it in a record-breaking six months. “Recognising the importance of time, we expedited infrastructure projects, completing 52 flyovers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region in an average of 30-1/2 months, significantly shorter than the norm of 48 to 60 months,” he added. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner Bhushan Gagrani and architect P K Das, known for his sustainable city planning approach, also participated in the session.