Kharghar

Introduction

Navi Mumbai is envisaged as a counter magnet to reduce the pressure on Mumbai Suburb. It is planned as a polycentric new town with a series of nodal concentrations along mass-transport corridors. When fully built, it is expected to have 14 such townships with a combined population of four million and one million jobs. Kharghar is one of the 14 nodes and is being developed by CIDCO for an estimated population of about 50,000. Alcohol selling is banned in Kharghar and there are no beer shops or wine bars in Kharghar.

Location

Kharghar adjoins the Central Business District of Belapur in Navi Mumbai and is bound by two major highways and the picturesque Kharghar Hills. The Taloja industrial estate and Taloja creek are located on the east. Kharghar is primarily a residential township, but also has several educational institutions.

Characteristics

Kharghar measures about 1700 ha, 7 km long and 5 km wide. There are 12 village settlements located in Kharghar node having a combined population of 20,000. Kharghar is divided into 45 sectors. The general levels vary from 1.5 to 15.0 meters within the site. A third of the site is almost flat, but the areas close to the creek are low-lying. Kharghar hills bring a huge amount of rainwater, which is directed into the creek through the node as well as the Central Park area.

Infrastructure

Kharghar is home to the prestigious National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT); it was shifted to Kharghar from Dadar in 2002-03. NIFT offers undergraduate courses in fashion design, fashion communication, apparel manufacturing and information technology as well as postgraduate courses in fashion management and fashion design space. NIFT is headquartered at New Delhi. Apart from NIFT, Kharghar accommodates many other reputed colleges, including the The Institute for Technology & Management(ITM), Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering(BVCOE), Annasaheb Chudaman Patil College of Engineering, Saraswati College of Engineering and Yerala Medical Trust's College & Hospital. Presence of these colleges makes Kharghar a youthful place. Kharghar has a large number of reputed high schools such as Apeejay, Greenfingers Global School, DAV, RYAN, Sanjeevani, Ramsheth Thakur and Balbharati Public School.

Kharghar has a number of ready and under-construction projects both in the commercial and residential segments. The 10-storey office building of Siemens India Ltd. near Kharghar railway station is the oldest commercial structure. Kendriya Vihar is the oldest and the biggest residential complex of Kharghar. CIDCO has also built one of the largest residential complex Shilp Valley near sector 36 in Kharghar. Some of the prestigious residential buildings are Kesar Harmony, Regency park, Hyde Park, Hiranandai Gardens and Patel Heritage. Navi Mumbai's tallest building samyama city with 65 stories is planned in sector 36 in Kharghar. The Indian Armed Forces has two residential enclaves – Jalvayu Vihar and Raghunath Vihar. The Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC)located in Sector 22 is a state-of-the-art R&D satellite of the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), which also includes under its umbrella the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), the largest cancer hospital in Asia.

CIDCO has also built an 18-hole golf course opposite Central Park in Kharghar along with shopping malls which would have made the city one of the best locations in Navi Mumbai, but now sadly would be brought under the undeveloped Panvel village. The much awaited Central Park in Sector 23 will sprawl across 80 hectares and cover three sectors. The park was expected to be ready by 2010, but is still incomplete. When completed, it will have a jogger's track, food courts, fountains, botanical gardens, amphitheatre, theme parks and conservatory (green house).

ISCKON has commenced construction of its temple at the entrance to the Central Park. It is believed this will be the biggest ISCKON temple in India. Sector 12 also has a park called "Krantiveer Phadke Garden". Sector-20 also has a CIDCO park for morning joggers, senior citizens and children.

Currently, Kharghar has two malls with multiplex movie screens. The first one is located at Little World Mall and the second at Glowmax Mall. A few movie screens with limited seats are also available at Tiara complex near Raghunath Vihar. There are retail brands like DMart in Sector-15, Reliance Fresh at Sec-19, Star Daily at Sec-20 and More at Little World mall. There are adequate utility shops, departmental stores and super markets in every sector.

Pedestrian Skywalk at Kharghar

CIDCO has constructed a skywalk to facilitate hindrance free movement between Kharghar railway station and the city node. This skywalk spans across the Sion-Panvel national highway with cable suspension bridge resting on 41 m tall pylon. The total length of the skywalk is 1780 m which makes it India's longest skywalk. It has an open type escalator in the entrance foyer portion of Kharghar railway station with a ramp for alighting. The skywalk runs parallel to the highway between Bharati Vidyapeeth up to the entrance of Pravesh Marg and then towards Utsav Chowk. There is also a NIFT college stop in between.

Rail

Kharghar is located on the outskirts of Mumbai. It falls in Raigad district. Kharghar railway station lies on Central Railway's Harbour line, a part of Mumbai's suburban railway network. It takes about 65 minutes to reach Kharghar by train from Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).

Road

A drive by road from CST takes about 60 minutes via the Eastern Freeway. Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT), another important Railway Station is also 45 minutes drive by road from Kharghar via the Santacruz - Chembur Link Road (SCLR). The six lane Mumbai-Pune Expressway starts at Kalamboli (4 km from Kharghar). The place is easily approachable from Pune and the other major cities of the state like Thane, Kalyan, Nashik etc. Within the suburbs, NMMT buses are available frequently between stations, nodes and within sectors. NMMT buses are available from Kharghar to Vashi, Chembur, Sion, Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Uran and Taloja. NMMT runs their AC Volvo buses from Kharghar to Dadar, Borivali and Cuff Parade. BEST buses are also available from Kharghar to Vashi, Sion, Dadar and Ghatkopar.

Private cars and two wheelers continue to serve as the prime means of transport. Private taxis offer services from Kharghar to other parts of Navi Mumbai and Mumbai.

Navi Mumbai Metro

The first phase of Navi Mumbai Metro will be from "Belapur" to "Pendhar" via "Kharghar". The planning and construction of the Navi Mumbai Metro is being overseen by CIDCO". The foundation stone for the project was laid on 1 May 2011 and the project was expected to be operational from end of year 2017.

Navi Mumbai International Airport

The proposed new Navi Mumbai International Airport was initially expected to be operational by 2014 in the Kopra area between Khandeshwar and Kamothe. This was passed by CIDCO on August 1, 2009. Despite getting environmental clearance from the Centre almost three years ago, the project was stuck due to protracted negotiations with farmers who wanted a compensation package of Rs 20 crore per hectare or 35 per cent of the land bank as a developed plot.

The project, which will come up on 1,160 hectares of land, will be built in four phases. The first phase with an annual capacity of 10 million passengers will be completed by 2018. After the completion of the whole project, it will cater to about 60 million passengers a year.

The affected villagers will mostly be rehabilitated in a new township called Pushpak Nagar and in Wadghar and Wahal villages around the project area. Under the project plan, the rare island village of Waghivali in Panvel creek will be converted into a mangrove lagoon and its ecology will be maintained

There is also a plan to build a sea link between Nhava Sheva and Sewri, thus making the new airport accessible to not only Navi Mumbai residents but also the residents of south Mumbai as well.

Land use distribution

The land use distribution proposed for Sector-23, 24 & 25 is as under:

It is one of the most planned nodes of Navi Mumbai and lies close to CBD Belapur, Vashi. This area is proposed to be developed as an education centre with a number of primary and higher education institutes opening their campuses in the vicinity.

Site for Central Park

The proposed park occupies an area of 119 Ha. (approx.) spreading over into Sector 23, 24 & 25 in Kharghar. An area of 80 ha. (approx.) is earmarked for 'Central Park'. It is a relatively flat terrain that has sporadic vegetation. The site acts as a link between two natural elements: hill and water. Mumbai: A sprawling hill plateau spread over 250 acres at Kharghar in Panvel will soon be up for grabs. The City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) will hold a global auction with a reserve price of Rs 2,000 crore to create a themecum-entertainment city on the lines of Hollywood, Disneyland and Sentosa park in Singapore.

Since its inauguration, the Central Park at Kharghar, is the centre of recreational activities for people in Kharghar as well as others. For safety purpose there are four CCTVs at the Central Park, which will keep a check on the visitors and keep a track of all the people. This move aim at ensuring maximum security for those who visit the park," a senior Cidco official said. He added that the cameras have been operational since a week.

Navi Mumbai Corporate Park

Cidco has planned a better version of Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Kharghar with a layered structure with a pyramid-shaped central hub of high rises. The new structure (NMCP) will encompass an area of 200 hectares factoring in the central park and golf course. The actual corporate hub will be on 125 hectares of land. Cidco has decided to have a layered structure with the outer fringe to be developed with 1-2 FSI while the core area will have 3 FSI. Around 50 % of the area (120 hectares) has been set aside for the high rises with 3 FSI for the pyramid-shaped structure. Plots will be auctioned for corporates with the richer entities vying for the hub of the corporate park. Shops and commercial properties will also be developed so that there is night life unlike BKC. Proximity to the international airport and the metro project worth Rs 13,000 crore, will provide high class infra, Bhatia said. The entire Kharghar node along with nearby industrial Taloja will get connected to the new airport lending an opportunity for businesses to hop between work stations and the airport.