NITI Aayog discusses plan to raise Mumbai’s GDP to $300 billion by 2030

The NITI Aayog has selected four cities Mumbai Metropolitan Region along with Surat, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam

MUMBAI: The NITI Aayog will draft an economic masterplan for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to help raise the gross domestic product of the city from the existing $140 billion to $300 billion by 2030, people familiar with the matter said after the meeting between Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and top officials of the Centre’s public policy think tank.

NITI Aayog chief executive officer BVR Subramanyam said the NITI Aayog will present the blueprint of the economic masterplan for Mumbai in the next four months

“The NITI Aayog has identified 20 cities that will drive the growth of the country to help achieve its target of a $5 trillion economy,” a Maharashtra planning department official said. The official underlined that while states have traditionally planned for the land use and physical masterplan, there has been no attempt to draft an economic masterplan. “The NITI Aayog is doing this for these 20 cities. In the first phase, MMR has been chosen along with Surat, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam,” the official added.

At Tuesday’s meeting, NITI Aayog chief executive officer BVR Subramanyam said the NITI Aayog will present the blueprint of the economic masterplan in the next four months. The state government has also constituted a committee of senior officials for the implementation of the plan.

“Maharashtra has skilled manpower, and a robust infrastructure with projects such as Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), coastal highway, and the Samruddhi expressway is expected to be operational soon. With last mile connectivity in place, MMR will be in a position to grow fast, generating more jobs, attracting information technology and the automobile industry in the near future.,” the official said.

Chief minister Ekanath Shinde said that the state government’s target of making the state a $1 trillion economy could be achieved out of the growth in MMR.

Shinde expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for including MMR in the four cities that are part of the pilot project to make them the growth hub and announced a dedicated team of senior officials. He added that the master plan will help the state raise its contribution to the country’s GDP from the existing 13%.

The MMR’s gross domestic product is more than that of many countries including Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Israel and Chili.

“The population of the MMR is expected to grow over 27 million by 2030. The growh rate of the MMR ranged between 5 and 5.5% for the last five years, and to achieve the expected growth in the next seven years, an investment of $150 billion is needed. The urbanisation rate of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Punjab would be over 50% by 2030 and the cities in these states need to be economically capable,” Subramanyam said in a presentation at the meeting attended by deputy chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.

NITI Aayog called for a focus on hospitality, tourism, construction, financial services, education, health, logistics, transport for the overall development.

V Radha, additional secretary, NITI Aayog said, “Generally we make masterplans for cities, but we are chalking out economic plan for MMR with the right policies to unlock the potential of the cities using the growth drivers. MMR is in good time now as the mega projects such as second airport, MTHL are nearing completion. There should be systematic efforts to ensure how can these projects become a money spinner for MMR.”