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Vashi2Panvel.Com: Navi Mumbai: February 27: Despite the amount of development and growth the city has seen over the years, there are still many people across Mumbai who have a certain mindblock towards the city of the 21st century. Like Shashank Kamra who is a resident of Vashi and studies in R.D. National College Bandra puts it, “People have a major mindblock towards Navi Mumbai. Whenever I tell my friends who stay in Bandra and other area of suburbs that I stay in New Bombay they give me this weird look. I even have people asking me that does your village have light, that’s the amount of misconception that exists in their mind.”


But slowly and gradually this whole stereotype which has existed in peoples' mind over the years is changing. Today there are many people who travel from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai either for work or for education.

“I have a complete professional setup in Mumbai, yet I am trying to establish myself in Navi Mumbai because I see a lot of opportunties here, unlike Mumbai where opportunities are very limited today,” states Mr. Rajesh Ruparel who is a Chartered Accountant by profession and runs Sukh Sagar classes in Vashi. He agrees to the fact that people in Mumbai do have a mindblock towards Navi Mumbai but according to him the concept has been changing over the last two to three years.

Navi Mumbai is primarily known as an education city and there are many youngsters who flock to New Bombay everyday because of the academic facitlies that it offers. Rajiv Narayan a student of S.I.E.S (Nerul) is a resident of Chembur and travels to Nerul everyday. “I took the decision of coming to Nerul willingly and today I am happy that I took this decision. But I never had any sort of a mind-block but yes, there are still a lot of people who look down upon Navi Mumabi.”

Raising the same voice is Arun Ganesh who studies in S.I.E.S Nerul and is a Non- Navi Mumbaite, but in his case the problem was that he did not have any option but to come to Navi Mumbai. “Although when I took admission in S.I.E.S it was an unwilling decision but today I have no regrets with the decision I made back then. And with regards to the mindblock I never had any kind of disdain towards New Bombay, even before I took admission I used to visit the city as I had some friends residing over here. But overall because of places like Palm Beach Road and Center One, the concept is coming off age.”

The mindblock towards Navi Mumbai overall is maturing and people are finally waking upto the idea that Navi Mumbai is in the true sense the city of the 21st century with so many educational and job prospects to offer.

By Nidhi Anand