South Korea to help MMRDA with plan for eastern suburbs

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will get a helping hand from South Korea on a master plan for developing the eastern parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) along the 126-km long Viraralibaug Multimodal Corridor (VAMC).

MMRDA signed an MOU with South Korea’s ministry of land, infrastructure and transport this week.

The MOU states that the Korean ministry will share information with MMRDA planners and prepare a detailed master plan showcasing land development models along with funding patterns. It will start work on January 1, 2014. plan, development models and the funding patterns will be submitted to the state government within a year, for approval.

Interestingly, the Korean government’s cooperation comes free of cost.

The multimodal corridor is an ambitious project and could usher in the next phase of development in MMR.

In addition, it involves training of high level officials of the MMRDA and will enable the authority to approach global funding agencies such as the World Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

MMRDA additional commissioner Ashwini Bhide said, “The Korean model of land use development has similar constraints as India and could be suitably modified and used in developing the eastern MMR, especially