Navi Mumbai Cityscapes

[kshatriya]

Mall Boom now in Vashi, Navi Mumbai





Raghuleela Mega Mall

Developer
Vijay Associates (Wadhwa) Developers

Location
Opposite Vashi railway station

Tentative opening date
Early 2005

What’s unique to Raghuleela Mega Mall?
• The 12 floors will cover a total area of 9,50,000 sq ft
• Basement parking arrangement for over 700 cars
• The ground floor and the three floors will be exclusively for shopping and the fourth floor will be an open terrace area
• Floors five to 12 will be an IT park
• A six-screen multiplex is being planned.
• Food court and seating arrangement for over 1,000 people

9,50,000 sq ft
The area of the mall

12
The number of floors the mall will have

6
The number of screens the mall’s multiplex will have

1,000
The number of people the food court can accommodate completely restored
Source: Developers

‘The mall will house all major brands’

A source close to the developer of Raghuleela Mega Mall says, “Major Indian and international brands will set up stores at Raghuleela Mega Mall. Also, Food Bazaar, Big Bazaar and Pantaloons will shift here from Center One. An area of 80,000 sq ft housing Big Bazaar and other shops is expected to be inaugurated early next year.”





City Center

Developer
Akshar Developers

Location
Palm Beach Road, Sector 19, Vashi

Tentative opening date
Mid-2005

What’s unique to City Center?
• The mall will be spread across an area of 2.70 lakh sq ft
• It will have a two-level basement parking facility for over 700 cars
• It will have 300 shops and boutiques, three multiplexes with 415 seats each and 60 food courts
• It will have a ground floor atrium of 27,000 sq ft
• The mall will have two hypermarkets of 18,000 sq ft each and
three open terrace restaurants

2.70 lakh sq ft
The area of the mall

300
The number of shops and boutiques in the mall

700
The number of cars that can be parked at the mall
Source: Developers

‘City Centre will be one of its kind in Navi Mumbai’

Says Manoj Gogia, in-charge of the project, “City Centre will be one of its kind in Navi Mumbai and will have all the top leading boutiques and international labels under one roof. The group is already catering to the needs of the city's residents through Green City, a departmental store in Sector 17, Vashi.”




Raghuleela Shopping Mall

Developer
Vijay Associates (Wadhwa) Developers

Location
Sector 4, Nerul, near Palm Beach Road

Tentative opening date
Late 2005

‘The mall will be located in a housing complex’

Though the developers do not wish to reveal more about the plans, a source close to the developer tells us that the mall will be the first in Nerul.

“Raghuleela Shopping Complex is located inside Raghuleela Housing Complex, which has a record of being the longest building in Asia. It will have two floors of shopping area, which will house all leading national and international brands.”

Late 2005
The tentative time of the opening of this complex

[p2p4]

I can VEHEMNTLY claim myself to be a resident of Navi Mumbai, though I live most of the year in Hong Kong. My last trip there lasted almost 2 months with heavy commuting from Vashi to the CBD Belapur.

There are two old adages "A PICTURE SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS" and "NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER".

The pictures of Palm Beach Road (Xpway????!!!) are akin to comparing the above two adages. Yes, compared to all other city roads, this road is superb by Indian standards. But that's all there is to it. Width to width, length to length of the Palm Beach road is lovely in pictures. What they DO NOT show you are the side roads that jut into areas left and right of this road. One moment you feel you are on a 21st Century Indian road and the next turn to the left or right into smaller roads bring you to the harsh reality that yes Bhai-log, we are in Mera Bharat Mahaan of yesteryears.

Gravel, dust, potholes on the side roads are still a reality. Road markings disappear as you move towards CBD Belapur (only lane markings, but most are fading). Pedestrian walkways / footpaths - once tiled and spick and span, are now gathering dust, most tiles broken due to wear and tear, and once broken, expose the soil / loose cement underneath.

Palm Beach road used to have reflective edge markers (black and white poles with red reflectives on top) on both sides of the road. Over the years, these have disappeared. Some stretches have them but there is no regularity.. You can even find some bent or mowed down by cars. THose that remain, will be yanked out and stolen by miscreants in no time.

Road turbulence once upon a time was nil on P.B.Road. Three monsoons off and you can now see a few depressions, which, if left neglected, will certainly create craters and then pot holes in the coming months. In some sections loose gravel gives you the cracking sound underneath your vehicles chassis.

The access roundabout to Palm Beach Road (some distance off the Vashi toll gate) has a HUGE 0.5 x 2 meter scrape hole !! Many innocent drivers have had their chassis scraped underneath. No warnings or conical markers warn you.

It is not a sin to fantasize about Palm Beach Road LOOKING like some road in a first world country. I would say that it can still be a FIRST WORLD, FIRST CLASS ROAD but provided, the CIDCO officials ** take note of the deterioration on the stretch.

Unfortunately they don't. My complaints and suggestions to CIDCO officials resulted in them passing the buck to the next official and next department responsible for the upkeep of this road. And guess what my dear friends? For an organisation like CIDCO, you would guess that all roads under its administration are under ONE CIVIC ENGINEER? For each sector, they have different C.E for roads. Talk about efficiency? None at Cidco my dear friends.

I will be in Nerul again on 24th Dec thru 2nd Jan 05. I will certainly shoot pix of the deterioration for you all to see.

Cheers
p2p4

Originally Posted by indian

The expressway looks so good. It is like being in a first world country. Keep it up Navi Mumbai. I hope this becomes city acquires a skyline like that of NYC.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by p2p4

I will be in Nerul again on 24th Dec thru 2nd Jan 05. I will certainly shoot pix of the deterioration for you all to see.

Cheers
p2p4

Basically what we need is a will to do well. That doesn't exist in most government setups. CIDCO is no exception though I would say it is probably one of the better ones in the country. However I don't see why we should have multiple organizations like NMMC and CIDCO controlling a city. That also creates problems.

Well apart from the deterioration (which has been reported by Kshatriya quoting a newsreport) also shoot pictures of the highrise buildings.

A few pictures of Sagar Dasrshan and Sea Breaze and other highrises woud be great (since this is skyscrapercity!). ANd there are some highrises on some of the hilltops too. If you can get pics of highrises in CBD that would be great too.

[Suncity]

Palmsprings

[MachuPichu]

I can see why some people are frustrated as to the uneven infrastructure. I can clearly see why. That's because there are no standards and if there are some, they are not being enforced like with almost any other thing in India.

I dont know if the national or state highway authoroties yet have a standardized naming and road markings standrad for the entire country. Also, not sure if the roads are all named properly and North/South/East/West directions identified like in the US. Building roads is only one part, taking care of the users is a totally different concept. Are exits clearly marked a mile or so in advance? Are there multiple signs so that people dont miss exits? Is there a highway traffic patrol to prevent highway traffic crimes? Knowing how India is very poor on enforcement and sticking to standards, I think we are a thousnad years from having standardized infrastructure. Pocets of roads will look good and I bet each road has its own set of markings. I dont think even road signs like "no overtaking", "right/left turns" etc. are standardized. How about the markings on the road itself? In the US, the markings like lane separators and other stuff convey a lot of information to the road users.

Unless, the nation and its bureaucrats learn how to do things in a standrd sort of wya and understand the importance of doing things in a structured, methodical fashion, we are going to be very slow in improvements. For example, how do you expect me to drive a world class car on a good Indian highway if the supporting roads and inner city roads are very bad? My car sure will break down once I get off the highway.Therein lies the poor thinking of the planners. We never had good planners to begin with, in any case.

[kshatriya]

Will Navi mumbai's skyline change? An increase in FSI.....


A new sunrise

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JANUARY 01, 2005 03:53:02 PM ]


Many an oak tree, it is said, grows from small acorns. Navi Mumbai's property markets are likely to witness a similar development in the near future with City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (CIDCO) allowing five buildings in Vashi the permission to use additional FSI for redevelopment.


According to CIDCO officials, this permission to JN-3 Type Apartment Owners Association will soon be implemented across several old CIDCO constructions in Vashi, Ghansoli, Koparkhairne and Airoli.

The change is likely to pave the way for the redevelopment of over 300 such buildings in Vashi itself and may eventually benefit more than 200,000 residents in the lower and middle-income groups.

These tenements were built by CIDCO over 25 years ago and quite a few of them are in a state of extreme disrepair. Unfortunately for the residents, no developer was willing to re-develop them because of the low FSI 1.0, which was prevalent.

Haribhau Samantkar, a resident, says, "We have been living here since 23 years and facing problems like leakage and water shortage. Despite protests, no corrective measures have been taken. It was beyond the capacity of poor residents like us to get such a building repaired."

Kishore Patkar, the local NMMC corporator who took the lead in taking up the issue with CIDCO, says, "These buildings have not been repaired since 25 years. They have cracked in many places. Even some of the slabs have broken. They are in such a pathetic condition that they could crumble any time. Considering this we requested CIDCO's Managing Director Vinay Mohanlal to take immediate action."

Finally all residents' associations came together and following their pressure, CIDCO decided to enhance the FSI to 1.5.

According to Patkar, CIDCO's decision of increase in FSI is not only going to benefit these five buildings but all CIDCO-developed buildings that are in a bad condition.

Residents like Samantkar are understandably ecstatic. "We will get a house of 980 sq. ft. in return of 450 sq. ft. as a result of increase in FSI and that too without spending a penny. For the last 22 years, we have been dreaming of a big, beautiful, fully facilitated house of our ownership," he says.

Vivek Marathe, City Service Manager, CIDCO, says: "Buildings developed by CIDCO spread over more than 1000 sq. meter area will benefit from this decision. Developers, however, will have to pay additional lease premium. They will also need the permission of NMMC for carrying out construction."

An important factor is that with this announcement, CIDCO has also given permission to change the user status of the building from residential to residential-cum-commercial. A maximum 10% of the total area of the building can be given for commercial use.
CIDCO's decision will have a huge impact on the property market of Navi Mumbai, boosting construction of both residential and commercial spaces.

Rajesh Prajapati, Managing Director, Prajapati Constructions Pvt. Ltd., comments, "In fact the decision will prove to be advantageous for the construction business for a long term. Buildings developed by CIDCO will gradually become old and hence for the next ten to fifteen years, developers will get to redevelop them. "Development in Navi Mumbai will now take a new turn. The entire skyline of Navi Mumbai will change. There will be better elevations and more and more towers in place of old dilapidated buildings. “Not only will the builders get new opportunities but residents will also get better and bigger houses," adds Prajapati. "CIDCO'S decision of increase in FSI for redevelopment of CIDCO buildings will bring a tremendous increase in the supply of housing avenues, especially when the decision is implemented all over Navi Mumbai. As the supply increases, property prices will automatically come down," feels property consultant Manohar Shroff. The announcement is also expected to bring stability into Navi Mumbai's property market. Since developers could now develop buildings on land owned by CIDCO instead of buying a new plot for construction, it would lead to lower construction cost. Clearly, residents of Navi Mumbai will have some reasons to smile in the new year.

[magestom]

yh

[Suncity]

[p2p4]

Perhaps we can take the initiative of inviting our great CIDCO officials on this site. They definitely need more exposure of www.skyscrapercity.com than anyone to see what LIES BEYOND the shores of Mumbai.

Forget the taxpayer funded travel to PHOREN LANDS.. they can be in Shanghai / Frankfurt / Singapore / Washington at the click of a mouse.... (broadband willing)

Cheers
p2p4

[p2p4]

Buddy SUncity,

Thanks for posting the pix of N/M. Your pic (as below). I wish you get a chance to see this bldg today. It is in a sorry state of affairs with paint reeling off, cracks in the concrete, patchy work and worst of insults to any aesthetics, is the very local mentality of putting up your laundry on the balcony for whole and sundry to see.


p2p4

Originally Posted by Suncity

Congradulations Navi Mumbai

[magestom]

NEW BOMBAY
CIDCO

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by magestom

NEW BOMBAY
CIDCO

These are competition projects. I doubt that they have been accepted or approved.

[Suncity]

From http://metroconstructionco.com/

TULSI GAGAN, Kharghar. A Complex of two towers G+Podium+ 17 upper floors



Tulsi Heights, New Panvel, G+14



Tulsi Prerna, New Panvel, Stilt + 14 storey

[Suncity]

Reliance Petroleum HQ

[Suncity]

Sagar Darshan and Sea Breeze



Seawood Complex aerial

[Citi-Zen]

^ Great aereal there!!!

[kshatriya]

Nice aerial....one disturbing sight in the pic though, levelled mangroves, acres of them. I guess it is kind of important to the development of the city, but maybe they should've thought about the best possible use and minimize the effects of development before going ahead and clearing them. I dont think sure cheap high rise towers are an acceptable replacement for them.

[Suncity]

[drwho]

Sun ahh awesome pictures!!

Reliance Petroleum HQ looks cool and the last pic looks wonderful with forest and highways