Blackstone infuses over ₹50 cr to redevelop one-mile road stretch in Mumbai

Global investment major Blackstone's Nucleus Office Parks has redeveloped a one-mile stretch of a street in Mumbai's central business district of the Lower Parel area at an investment of more than ₹50 crore.

However, Blackstone didn't reveal the investment for this public-private partnership initiative with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The fund has spent more than ₹50 crore in the redevelopment of the street, a Mumbai civic body official told new agency PTI.

The one mile area has safer pedestrian pathways and community spaces for residents, the PE major, that owns and manages assets worth more than USF 60 billion in India, said.

Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray had formally opened the stretch to the public. The upgrading project took more than a year for completion, said the fund that has over $20 billion in realty assets in the country across 41 properties since 2006, making it the largest foreign fund in the space. 

Thanking Blackstone for its support, Thackrey said it is encouraging to see the private sector step forward and collaborate with the local government and authorities to improve the city's infrastructure.

The mile-long stretch of the road sitting at the junction between Dadar, Elphinstone and Lower Parel is a high-volume traffic area with more than one lakh commuters per day.

Nucleus Office Parks, the real estate platform, has streamlined traffic and vehicle lanes by constructing two signals and one U-turn junction. The project also created 2.5 km of pedestrian walkway and 2.5 km of dedicated cycling tracks apart from an afforestation of 1.5 acres.

Tuhin Parikh, head (real estate) at Blackstone India, said the firm has contributed to several initiatives to help build communities in India. The Mumbai streetscape project helps make roads safer and more accessible.

Quaiser Parvez, the CEO of Nucleus Office Parks, said it worked all through 2021 in upgrading one of the city's arterial streets into a world-class.