The Navi Mumbai town planning authority, City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), will announce the development of the country’s first smart city, Khalapur Smart City, at the Make in India event scheduled to start on February 13.
The city, spread over 3,550 hectares, comes under the Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area (NAINA). Cidco will sign 10 MoUs with developers in the region at the event, said a senior official.
“Eleven villages in Raigad district will form a special purpose vehicle (SPV), comprising land owners, for the planning and development of Khalapur Smart City under the NAINA scheme as per the 60:40 voluntary land pooling model,” the official said. The Khalapur Nagar panchayat, Kalote Mokashi gram panchayat and Nadode gram panchayat, which represent the 11 villages, will voluntarily pool their land for developing an integrated township. The cost of developing the township is estimated at Rs 8,000 crore.
The SPV will develop internal infrastructure at an estimate of Rs 3,300 crore while Cidco will invest Rs 4,622 crore towards city and peripheral-level infrastructure. Work on this project will commence by 2017, he added.
The Khalapur SPV will contribute 40 per cent of the land towards the project, of which 25 per cent will go towards physical and social infrastructure while 15 per cent will comprise growth centres. The development of infrastructure within the remaining 60 per cent of land will be the SPV’s responsibility.
Once the State government approves the Khalapur Smart City project development plan, Cidco will provide the city and peripheral level infrastructure within 10 years.
“Cidco will appoint a nodal officer for this project, and all applications for infrastructure approval and clearances will be routed through the officer,” said a Cidco spokesperson. In December last, Cidco unveiled the blueprint of its smart city project. It has technical advisory tie-ups with Accenture, SAP, Stockholding Corporation and Zensar.
88 sub-projects
The project will have 88 sub-projects, including smart organisation, transparency and ease of doing business through e-governance, environmental sustainability, new technology for waste management, urban renewal and development of gardens and playgrounds.
The writer is a freelance journalist
