03 February,2015 10:10 PM IST | | A Correspondent
MMRDA planning five more business hubs or smart cities on the lines of Bandra-Kurla Complex in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region
If everything goes according to plan, then the Mumbai Metropolitan Region will soon have five more business hubs or smart cities that will come up on the lines of Bandra-Kurla Complex.
Also read: A smart Bandra Kurla Complex by March 2015
MMRDA, which is the city's nodal planning agency, has already identified five locations in MMR -- Kanjurmarg, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan, Bhiwandi and Kalwa. The new business hubs will be connected with proper modes of transport.
The MMRDA has not yet decided the exact time frame for the project.
Highly-placed sources in MMRDA told mid-day that as per the plans, Bhiwandi will be made a logistic hub and the nearby Kalyan will be developed with a focus on industry. The bussiness hub at the Vasai-Virar is being planned as a tourism zone.
"The important factor about these new business hubs will be that these hubs will have commercial and residential complexes so that the walk-to-work culture can be implemented," an MMRDA official, requesting anonomity, said
The new business hubs will be connected through better transportation systems like metro corridor and road connectivity.
Every office building in these hubs will have to mandatorily construct commercial space like shops and hotels. The shops and hotels at these hubs will have the permission to be operational in the night so that people working in these hubs can avail of the facilities. There will also be features like smart parking, wi-fi connectivity, smart street lights that are being planned in BKC.
The bussiness hubs have been planned along the ambitious Virar-Alibaug multimodal corridor of MMRDA and these smart cities will be connected to major highways and also the Navi Mumbai International Highway.
In order to speed up the implementation of these smart cities, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will head a war room that will do a follow-up with the union ministry departments like MoEF , Defence and Railways so that getting clearence is not a lengthy process.
