Day one of the property exhibition of the Builders Association of Navi Mumbai (BANM) received a lukewarm response as there were hardly any visitors. Buyers were baffled to find properties not within their budget, and they termed the exhibition only for the premium category, not for common people.
With a number of property exhibitions being held around the year by different groups of developers’ bodies, the craze among home buyers to visit the exhibition and buy their dream homes is dropping. CREDAI BANM Raigad held its exhibition in Khandeshwar in December and within four-months, another exhibition was organised.
"Affordable homes not located in Navi Mumbai," says a home owner
A home buyer who visited both exhibitions says that there are hardly any new projects that he has come across. “They claim affordable homes in Navi Mumbai in the exhibition. But I found affordable homes are located in Karjat and Khopoli which is not Navi Mumbai,” said Dinesh Shah, a home buyer.
As the exhibition is being held at the CIDCO exhibition centre in Vashi for the first time after the outbreak of the pandemic, the stalls set up are spacious and creative. However, day one received a lukewarm response from home buyers.
Amit Srivastava
Navi Mumbai witnessed the worst air quality during winter
Of late, the air pollution in the city has broken all previous records. Major infrastructure projects and redevelopment are seen as major contributors to air pollution. B N Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation says that there is zero care for the environment. Navi Mumbai air quality during winter was worst. Nerul’s Sector 19A showed a hazardous level of 476 of PM2.5 in the third week of February.
Similarly, Uran recorded severe levels of pollution ranking global number 6 and forth in India. Following rise in pollution, environmentalists knocked the doors of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. “The CM in turn has asked the environment and urban development departments to examine the environmentalists’ complaints,” Kumar who alerted the CM said.
Amit Srivastava
More construction will make the planned city appear congested
In addition, the redevelopment of projects will be to create problems for the planned city. “The redevelopment will lead to the construction of buildings with 20 plus floors, as compared to the existing double-storeyed structures. This will put tremendous pressure on water, sewerage, power and traffic,” NatConnect director B N Kumar said. He added that the roads in nodes such as Vashi will not be able to bear the load and soon the planned city will appear like the congested areas such as Parel and Andheri.
In the last two years, CIDCO made available more than thousands of plots across the city. Despite providing a good number of plots, developers from the city have increased property prices exorbitantly. Earlier, developers used to blame CIDCO for the high prices of houses. They were saying that the planning agency was not releasing enough land to bring down prices.
