MMRDA to develop incubation centre

Mumbai: In a bid to form a stable leadership in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority  has planned to develop its own incubation/innovation centre inside its head office.

The centre will cater to new ideas and experiments while implementing infrastructure projects. In short, other urban local bodies can refer to the ideas implemented through the centre.

“We have planned to develop an incubation centre inside the newly-established MMRDA control room. The centre will act as a platform where new ideas for projects will be tried out,” said R.A. Rajeev, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA.

“Citing the example of the Wadala depot commercialisation, if we finalise a tender after planning for ten hours and if the bidding beco-mes successful, such ide-as will be taken forward,” he said.

The planning models or polices that become successful can be taken ahead by other local bodies. “This centre will be involving private players in development and can give MMRDA leadership in the MMR region,” said Mr Rajeev.

Further, the control will act as a platform to monitor all metro projects. The MMRDA has started using drone technology in order to map the progress of the civil work of ongoing metro construction works in the city. Drones will be flown above construction sites at a frequency of once a week.

Currently, works of four metro projects — metro 2A (D.N. Nagar to Dahi-sar), metro 2B (D.N. Naga-r to Mandale), metro 7 (Andheri east to Dahisar east) and metro 4  — have started on the ground.