Compared to
most of my friends who have been born and brought up in Thane, I am a new comer
with just 9 years here. But my love for this great city is no less than theirs.
What with
housing construction activity going on at feverish pitch all around, Thane is definitely
growing today but I feel this growth is not one which is going to contribute
much to the city but will only burden it in future in terms of additional
requirements of utilities and infrastructure like power, water, educational
institutions, transport, highways, health care etc. Thane will only become more
and more a suburb of Mumbai without any identity of its own. It will be a
residential base for increasing commercial prosperity of Mumbai.
For a city
to really prosper on its own, it must add value to the state and the country.
It must thrive economically on the goods and services it provides to the
society outside the city. It must think young, be innovative and continuously
reinvent itself.
For a long
time Thane had a solid manufacturing base in Textiles, Engineering, Chemicals
and Pharmaceuticals from small, medium and large scale industries. It generated
revenue for the city government, gave employment to thousands and attracted
talent from all over the country. Today almost all large industries have either
shut shop or shifted their base elsewhere. Many medium and small scale
industries are in doldrums. Just a drive through Wagle Industrial Estate will
suffice to prove my point. High cost of labor, low level of skills, smaller
scale of production and cheaper imports have made manufacturing here unviable
for many of these industries.
Thane city
needs to create an identity for itself distinct from that of Mumbai by using its
strengths to its advantage. Firstly it has real estate which is cheaper than
Mumbai. Due to its proximity to Mumbai and a green national park, it can
attract top Indian and International talent which looks for cosmopolitan
environment with clean living. With all the new residential construction in
progress, it can comfortably house a large workforce. It is close to two
International Airports of Mumbai, one of which will hopefully come up in the
next few years. Most importantly, due to its geographically small area for a large
metropolis, it must have environmentally friendly industry so that its citizens
have a clean life.
High end
Information Technology is one area which fulfils all these requirements and
utilizes the advantage of Thane. By high end I mean IT developmental labs and
high end software development activity and not call centers which are more
suitable for upstate smaller towns. Where to put this industry? With
manufacturing in shambles, Wagle Estate comes to my mind as a perfect fit for
IT industry. MIDC should buy back all the land it can from present lessees /
owners, many of whom will be more than glad to do it. Those industries and
residents who want to continue business, should be consolidated in one area of
the estate with proper compensation for their disruption. MIDC should
consolidate the present smaller plots into large land parcels, construct world
class infrastructure like roads, electric power supply, top class public
transport and offer the land to large Indian and International software giants
for setting up their base here. Each land parcel should be minimum 4-5000 sq
Meters to ensure that only the biggies enter the fray. It is high time we
abandoned our mindset of small is beautiful and invite those who can provide
employment opportunities to maximum number of skilled people.
With so
many persons working here, other businesses providing services to those people
will also grow dramatically. Restaurants, malls, transport, automobile, travel
and similar industries as well as educational institutes will expand, opening
up more opportunities for businessmen as well as people working in these
industries.
How long
will it take? Maybe 5 years with a Chandrashekhar at the helm or more with
someone else; but we are talking about Thane for the next 60-70 years; so this
is a small time invested for a long term gain.
Internationally,
Thane will have its own identity as a knowledge center. Its citizens will have
cleaner, better life with less commuting and more facilities created by the
revenue rich Municipal Corporation. Maybe the TMC will compete with this
newspaper for the title of Thane Vaibhav!
In short if
Bangaluru and Hyderabad can do it why can't Thane?
