Mumbai model to help build self-financing cities in Andhra Pradesh

The Andhra Pradesh government has drawn a roadmap for self-financing, investment-led urban growth, after a high-level delegation had studied the city-building and metropolitan governance models in Maumbai.

A team led by S. Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD), undertook a two-day visit to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region on January 12 and 13.

The delegation studied the advanced practices in regional governance, land-based financing, transit-oriented development, slum redevelopment and large-scale city building, with a focus on applying these lessons to the Vizag Economic Region (VER).

Senior officials from the VMRDA, the Directorate of Town and Country Planning and the State Project Management Unit were part of the visit.

The officials held detailed interactions with senior government functionaries and agencies in Maharashtra, such as City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA).

The team studied how Mumbai finances infrastructure through land monetisation, Floor Space Index (FSI) premiums, development rights and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)-linked revenues, rather than budgetary grants.

Particular attention was paid to the development of Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) as a global financial district, and CIDCO’s Navi Mumbai and NAINA models, seen as benchmarks for Bhogapuram Aerocity and Vizag 2.0.

Mr. Suresh Kumar, in a statement on Tuesday, said Mumbai offers a clear blueprint for Andhra Pradesh to build globally competitive and self-sustaining cities.

“The way Maharashtra has empowered MMRDA and CIDCO, monetised government land, used FSI and TOD to fund Metro and housing, and created global districts such as BKC will directly guide Andhra Pradesh’s efforts to develop VER, Bay City, TOD corridors and new growth hubs across the State, positioning Andhra Pradesh for its next phase of urban and economic transformation,” he said.

VMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner N. Tej Bharath said the VER would be designed on similar principles to drive long-term economic growth.

“The VER is now being designed on similar principles—master-planned growth centres, TOD-linked densification, brownfield redevelopment and land-based financing—so that Visakhapatnam becomes a self-sustaining metropolitan economy rather than a grant-dependent city,” he said.