An Economic Reevaluation of Navi Mumbai and the Indian Satellite City

Abstract

Navi Mumbai, a municipality in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, is the largest satellite city project in India. Nevertheless, it has been seen within the planning discipline as underperforming its original ambitions. Drawing upon the goals enumerated in the city’s original development plan, this thesis proposes a series of quantitative metrics corresponding to said goals and then utilizes data drawn from surveys, censuses, official reports, financial statements, and remote sensing datasets to propose an updated evaluation of Navi Mumbai’s performance over the past half-century. This thesis argues that, contrary to earlier perceptions, Navi Mumbai has largely succeeded in fulfilling its ambitions, and that this can be attributed to shifting suburbanization patterns in India, the prescient decision to prioritize office-based service industries over manufacturing, and the ongoing reconfiguration of transportation and logistics networks within the Mumbai region. Reflecting on the history of urban and economic planning in India, this thesis then suggests the implications of Navi Mumbai’s apparent success for satellite city projects in India and across the Global South, focusing on questions of financing and governance.