Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Navi Mumbai to get Olympic size swimming pool by August 2023
NAVI MUMBAI: In the next two years, Navi Mumbai residents will get their first civic-run Olympic size swimming pool in Vashi with a sports complex.
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) is developing a ₹149Cr eight storey sportscum-commercial complex, the first of its kind in the city. The 50x20sqm pool will be on the fourth floor of the complex.
Sanjay Desai, city engineer of NMMC, said, “A plot measuring 9,000sqm was allocated for this complex along the Vashi-Koparkhairane road many years ago. The foundation work began last week, and we’ve asked the contractors to complete the entire project by August 2023.”
Arvind Shinde, executive engineer of Vashi division, said, “The swimming pool will be a major attraction of the complex, and we are spending more than ₹10Cr for it alone. Apart from the pool, the complex will have space for different indoor games such as badminton, basketball, table tennis among others. Vashi, Sector 12 is almost at the heart of Navi Mumbai and is around 3km from Vashi railway station as well as the Sion-Panvel
Highway. Therefore, residents from other nodes such as Sanpada, Nerul, Belapur, Koparkhairane, Ghansoli and Airoli will be able to access the complex easily.”
The ground floor of the complex will also have a new NMMT terminal for buses going to Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Raigad, and different places of Navi Mumbai, while 16 new bus stops will be developed.
Residents and sports enthusiasts from the city have welcomed the move. Manjeet Singh, 19, a badminton player from Vashi, said, “Navi Mumbai has no proper sports infrastructure till date. Earlier, I used to go with my friends to Mumbai for practice. Now we can’t even do that due to the pandemic. This sports complex is most welcoming.”