Walk to work concept is back
By Mr. Deepak Goradia, Vice Chairman and Managing Director- Dosti Realty
With the trend of urban development, a new and enhanced way of city living is definitely in the making. The most-talked about concept of ‘walk-to-work’ which had lost traction a couple of years back, is in current times, gradually gaining momentum. The builders and realty developers are leaning forward to further materialize this trend by developing residential spaces, commercial premises, educational institutions, hospitals, and entertainment zones, all within close proximity to each other.
The modern-day millennial buyer has been weighing the juggling of home maintenance, family time, and time spent to reach the work zones. Capitalizing in a home that lies in the vicinity of the workplace enabling one to walk it out the workstation has always been a dream for many. This is particularly true in the Mumbai Metropolitan region where people sometimes spend over two hours travelling to work either by public transport or by road in their private vehicles. Moreover, taking into consideration the current global crisis, due to the scare of community spread and to maintain social distancing even post the pandemic home buyers will be scouting for measures to evade public transport, thus all the more preferring to stay in juxtaposition to their offices. The unavoidable challenges faced by a working citizen have managed to influence a multitude of probable buyers to invest in the ‘walk-to-work’ concept where-in they can literally walk it out to their workplaces, thus evading public transport or private vehicles.
The difficulty of citizens’ to shuttle to their workplaces and back effectually is very real in a city like us with a highly-focused work culture. However, generating realty options which offer the ‘walk-to-work’ concept in Mumbai has been extremely challenging. This is because building this concept involves the creation of townships which have their individual infrastructure facilities along with residential as well as retail components and such projects necessitate larger land parcels. But the welcome initiative of Mumbai DP (Development Plan) 2034 has sparked a new wave of anticipation in Mumbai’s real estate market since it has predicted the unlocking of public and private land. This offers an exceptional avenue for the advance of the ‘walk-to-work’ philosophy, with housing and commercial spaces being created in unison on such land. Apart from Mumbai Development Plan and Development Control Regulations (DPDCR 2034), the MMRDA is envisaging Wadala to become the next commercial hub just like a BKC styled district which will boost the walk to work concept for residents living in and around Wadala, Sion, Ghatkopar, Chembur, etc. So, people commuting to work zones at these commercial hubs can consider investing in homes in Wadala, Sion, and Chembur and can reach their offices in private vehicles by avoiding public transport, thus enabling to condense the average travel time and expenses on transportation.
Similarly, mixed-use developments in Thane and locations of Kalher, Kasheli, Bhiwandi, etc are likely to gain further traction in years to come. In addition, for MIDC lease held plots there is a very friendly policy to encourage walk to work which states that up to 20% of the FSI can be used for the construction of residential tenements and the balance 80% has to be of IT services. This concept is especially popular in Wagle Estate, Thane (W).
Millennials in particular have seemed to embrace the concept whole-heartedly. Commute in present times has become the utmost priority, hence realty developers are also coming up with projects that propose to condense the office commute time to zilch. As our country has perceived a notable fiscal development, the mounting momentum of the concept will lead to major positive consequences. Residing with well-connected infrastructure co-related to commercial development in propinquity has definitely become the need of the hour to create a novel urbanized realty climate.