Mumbai : After planning to develop a growth centre at Kalyan, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is now taking steps to build one in Bhiwandi. The MMRDA plans to develop and streamline Bhiwandi into a logistics hub.
According to senior MMRDA official, officials took a survey of the area last week and have chalked out the development control regulation under the MMRDA, which is the special planning authority (SPA) of Bhiwandi Surrounding Notified Area of Thane District. MMRDA is still carving out the area that they are going to develop in Bhiwandi from the total of 15,000 hectares. “The plan is to develop it as a hub of logistics, as it has plenty of warehouses and godowns, in a streamlined manner. We will initiate a town planning scheme, develop roads etc and are planning to build infrastructure catering to a higher density and which can provide better connectivity with the surrounding areas,” said Sanjay Sethi, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA.
Last year, a South Korean government thinktank under the ministry of Land and Infrastructure and Transport had suggested that MMRDA develop five growth centres in the outer Mumbai region, including in Kalyan, Vasai-Virar, Greater Panvel and Pen-Alibaug. The thinktank report had also suggested an FSI of 4 for these growth centres, but a senior MMRDA official added, “The FSI in Bhiwandi will be higher than what it is currently, definitely, but this hasn’t been formally approved.”
The Korean thinktank, in its report, had recommended that Bhiwandi should also have a complex for the clothing and textile industry, with there already being a thriving cloth market.
