What Is KSC New Town (Third Mumbai)?
KSC New Town is the statutory entity behind the informal label “Third Mumbai” — a new town notified under MMRDA in October 2024 on land largely carved out of CIDCO’s NAINA area, with a target footprint of the order of 320 sq km around the Karnala–Sai–Chirner belt in Raigad. It is a planning jurisdiction, not a built city: nothing about the label tells you what may be built on a specific parcel; only the notified plan and the authority do. For how KSC New Town compares with NAINA and “Mumbai 3.0” as terms, see our terminology explainer.
Mumbai 1.0 is the island city. Mumbai 2.0 is Navi Mumbai, planned and built by CIDCO from the 1970s. Mumbai 3.0 — Third Mumbai — is the name given to the next expansion across the harbour, enabled by Navi Mumbai International Airport and the Atal Setu sea link.
As a way of understanding why capital is moving east, that framing is sound. As a description of a parcel’s legal status, it is empty, and it is used most heavily by people who would rather not name the jurisdiction. So it is worth being exact about what actually exists.
What is the statutory entity?
KSC New Town — a new town notified under MMRDA in October 2024 under the MRTP Act, 1966, named for the Karnala–Sai–Chirner belt at its core; it is a planning jurisdiction, not a municipal corporation or a built city.
KSC New Town, notified under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority in October 2024, under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966. “KSC” refers to the Karnala–Sai–Chirner belt at its core.
It is a new town in the planning sense: an area where a designated authority prepares the plan, controls development permission and builds the trunk infrastructure. It is not a municipal corporation, not a project, and not a place you can currently visit and see a city.
| Parameter | Position |
|---|---|
| Statutory name | KSC New Town |
| Informal names | Third Mumbai, Mumbai 3.0 |
| Authority | MMRDA |
| Legal basis | Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 |
| Notified | October 2024 |
| Target footprint | Of the order of 320 sq km |
| District | Raigad |
| Core belt | Karnala, Sai, Chirner and surrounding villages |
| Origin of the land | Largely carved out of CIDCO’s NAINA area in 2024 |
Why was it created out of NAINA?
Because NAINA’s original ~560 sq km under CIDCO proved too vast for even progress, so in 2024 the state moved a large portion to MMRDA as KSC New Town, leaving CIDCO’s NAINA with a reduced core of roughly 94 revenue villages.
NAINA — the Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area — was notified in January 2013 with CIDCO as Special Planning Authority over a very large belt, originally in the order of 560 sq km across around 270 villages. CIDCO sanctioned an Interim Development Plan in 2017 and began rolling out Town Planning Schemes, but the area was vast and progress was uneven.
In 2024 the state reorganised it. A large portion was moved to MMRDA as KSC New Town; NAINA under CIDCO continued with a reduced core of roughly 94 revenue villages.
The consequence for a buyer is specific and frequently missed: the same ground changed authority recently enough that a great deal of documentation in circulation is out of date. A brochure or map drawn before 2024 may describe a jurisdiction that no longer governs the parcel it is selling.
What is actually driving it?
Four pieces of infrastructure, three already built — Navi Mumbai International Airport (operating since 25 December 2025), the Atal Setu sea link (open January 2024), the near-complete Panvel–Karjat rail corridor, and the Mumbai–Pune Expressway and coastal works — reorienting the region across the harbour.
Four infrastructure pieces already reshaping the region
Four pieces of infrastructure, three of which already exist.
- Navi Mumbai International Airport. Commercial operations from 25 December 2025, international from 15 July 2026, Phase 1 rated for 20 million passengers a year, scaling to 90 million across four terminals at full build-out targeted 2032.
- Atal Setu (Mumbai Trans Harbour Link), 21.8 km, open since January 2024, connecting Sewri to Chirle.
- The Panvel–Karjat suburban corridor, 29.6 km with five stations, under MRVC’s MUTP-III, cutting roughly thirty minutes off the CSMT–Karjat journey.
- The Mumbai–Pune Expressway and the coastal highway works down the Konkan side.
Read together, these are not four projects. They are a reorientation of the region’s transport geometry from one spine on Mumbai island to a network across the harbour. That is the real basis of the Third Mumbai thesis, and it does not depend on the label.
What does Third Mumbai mean for a specific parcel?
Nothing by itself — no authority issues permissions for “Third Mumbai”, no plan is sanctioned under that name, and no boundary defines it; what governs a parcel is its authority, the notified land use, any scheme and its stage, and its tenure and title.
Why “Third Mumbai” cannot substitute for a planning document
Nothing, by itself. This is the part that matters, so it is worth stating flatly: no authority issues permissions for “Third Mumbai”, no plan is sanctioned for it under that name, and no boundary defines it. When the phrase appears in place of a jurisdiction and a sanction number, it is concealing rather than informing.
What governs a parcel is:
- Which authority has planning jurisdiction over it today — MMRDA’s KSC New Town, CIDCO’s NAINA, a municipal council, or the Collector under the Regional Plan.
- What that authority’s notified plan says the land use is.
- Whether the parcel falls in a scheme, and at what stage that scheme is.
- Whether the tenure permits transfer and the chain of title holds.
Establish those four by village name and survey number, in writing, from the authority. A zone certificate costs very little and settles a question brochures are designed to leave open.
| If a seller says | Ask instead |
|---|---|
| “This is Third Mumbai land” | Which authority has planning jurisdiction over this survey number today? |
| “It’s in the Mumbai 3.0 zone” | What is the land use under the notified plan, in writing? |
| “It’s inside NAINA” | Which Town Planning Scheme number, and at what stage? |
| “It’s MMRDA land” | What plan and regulations have been notified for this area, and what applies here? |
| “Approvals are coming” | Has an application been filed, with which authority, and on what date? |
| “The layout is approved” | Show me the sanction letter, its conditions and its validity period. |
What stage is the new town actually at?
Early — a town notified in late 2024 is a jurisdiction with a plan still being prepared, so its development-control regulations, land-assembly mechanism and phasing all take years to settle, and land bought on how they will settle is bought on a forecast.
Early. A new town notified in late 2024 is a jurisdiction with a plan being prepared, not a built environment. The plan, the development control regulations, the land assembly mechanism and the phasing all take years to settle, and each of them determines what a landowner ends up with.
That is the honest position and it has a direct pricing consequence. Land bought on an expectation of how a young plan will settle is land bought on a forecast. In a pooling or land-assembly regime, the landowner’s outcome is set by a scheme that may not yet exist — which is a different risk from buying a plot in a layout already sanctioned by an authority with settled regulations.
What are the risks?
The label standing in for a document, pre-2024 maps referencing the old NAINA boundary, unauthorised layouts, land-assembly terms not yet published, slipping timelines, and a corridor narrative that is already largely priced in.
Six risks worth pricing before you buy
The label doing the work of a document. The single most common failure. Ask which authority, which plan, which scheme.
Pre-2024 documentation. Maps and approvals referencing the old NAINA boundary for land now under MMRDA.
Unauthorised layouts inside the boundary. Plots sold from a layout no competent authority sanctioned, in an area where only the notified authority can sanction one.
Land assembly terms not yet known. In a pooling regime, how much land is retained for infrastructure and what the owner gets back is set by the scheme. Buying before those terms are published is buying blind.
Timelines. The airport opened years after its original target. The 2032 build-out is an assumption, not a schedule.
The narrative is already priced. The airport is operating, the sea link is open, the rail corridor is near commissioning. What remains to be delivered is the slow part — employment, social infrastructure, phased terminals — and prices in this belt already anticipate a good deal of it.
How should you use the term?
As a regional thesis, fairly — the eastern belt is genuinely being re-rated by real infrastructure — but never as a due-diligence answer; replace it every time with three specifics: the authority, the plan and the sanction.
As a regional thesis, fairly. The eastern harbour belt is genuinely being re-rated by real infrastructure, and it is reasonable to want exposure to that.
As a due diligence answer, not at all. Replace it with three specifics every time: the authority, the plan, the sanction. If a seller cannot supply those for a parcel, the label is what they have instead of them.
How Lords of the Lands sits relative to it
We use “Mumbai 3.0” to describe the region because that is the language the market and state planning now use, and our estates are in the Karjat, Khopoli and Raigad coast pockets — outside the NAINA and KSC pooling jurisdictions. That is deliberate: in a pooling area what a buyer ends up owning is decided by a scheme, while in a sanctioned private layout it is decided by documents that exist today. Every plot sits in a sanctioned layout with the approval, the title flow, the access width and the planning authority identified on file, available before any payment. If you are comparing us with land sold as Third Mumbai, put the same question to both sides: name the authority, name the sanction, and show it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Third Mumbai an official name?
No. The statutory entity is KSC New Town under MMRDA, notified in October 2024.
Is Third Mumbai the same as NAINA?
No. NAINA is CIDCO’s jurisdiction, notified in 2013 and now reduced to around 94 villages. KSC New Town is MMRDA’s, on land largely carved out of NAINA in 2024.
Where is it, exactly?
In Raigad district, around the Karnala–Sai–Chirner belt, with a target footprint of the order of 320 sq km. Confirm any specific village with MMRDA.
Are Karjat and Khopoli inside it?
They sit in the wider eastern corridor but outside the KSC and NAINA pooling jurisdictions. Confirm the position for any parcel by village and survey number.
Is it a good place to buy land?
That depends on the parcel’s authority, plan stage, zone, tenure, access and price — not on the label. A young jurisdiction carries more unpriced uncertainty, in both directions.
Related reading
The Mumbai 3.0 infrastructure
- Mumbai 3.0 infrastructure timeline, project by project — every project’s status and target date
- What the new airport changed — NMIA’s real effect on Raigad land
- Navi Mumbai airport: live status in 2026 — what has opened and what is next
- Which Raigad land Atal Setu actually helps — the bridge’s delivered, dated effect
- The Panvel–Karjat rail corridor — the suburban line into the belt
- The Virar–Alibaug Multimodal Corridor — the orbital expressway in the pipeline
- Why infrastructure timelines slip — reading target dates with the right discount
Planning, zoning and the label
- What NAINA and CIDCO control — the jurisdiction KSC was carved from
- The MMR growth corridors, mapped — where the region is actually expanding
- Deemed NA through plan approval — how approvals substitute for conversion
- Right of way and plot access — the access check a label can hide
Where to actually buy near the new town
- Panvel plots in 2026 — the NAINA and airport-side market
- Uran and Dronagiri land in 2026 — land right by the Atal Setu landing
- Pen land and Mumbai 3.0 — the first taluka off the interchange
- The Khopoli-Pali road (SH-93) guide — our core corridor, outside the pooling zones
- Karjat land prices in 2026 — the inland belt beyond KSC and NAINA
Investing in an emerging corridor
- The real risks in emerging corridors — what to price before you buy early
- How to compare land corridors — a framework for weighing one belt against another
- Which areas near Mumbai are appreciating — where delivered infrastructure moves prices
- Land banking near Mumbai — holding ahead of a young plan, sensibly
- What Lords of the Lands builds — sanctioned layouts outside the pooling jurisdictions
Citations and sources
Sources: Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (new towns and notified areas); KSC New Town notified under MMRDA, October 2024; NAINA notification January 2013 with CIDCO as Special Planning Authority, Interim Development Plan sanctioned 27 April 2017 and amended March 2024; Navi Mumbai International Airport commercial operations 25 December 2025 and international operations 15 July 2026; Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (Atal Setu), 21.8 km, opened January 2024; Panvel–Karjat corridor, 29.6 km and five stations under MRVC’s MUTP-III. This article is general information current as of September 2026 and is not legal or investment advice. Jurisdictional boundaries here were redrawn recently — verify the current position with MMRDA or CIDCO and your advocate before transacting. Official sources: CIDCO / NAINA · MSRDC.
