Hiranandani: The Future is Uttar Pradesh, No Ease of Doing Business, Navi Mumbai vs Thane

ELI5/TLDR

Niranjan Hiranandani — the man who built Powai out of swamp — sits down with Vishal Bhargava and rates India’s ease of doing business at 4-5 out of 10. He picks Navi Mumbai (Mumbai 3.0) and Uttar Pradesh as the two biggest growth bets of the next decade. He admits to one cash loss (a frenzied land buy in New Bombay), confirms that politicians have asked him to take their sons on as partners, and says he once had to run away from a vindictive minister.

The Full Story

Powai was the hardest, not the most glamorous

Asked which of Powai, Thane, or Navi Mumbai was the toughest build, he picks Powai without hesitation — because banks wouldn’t lend and he funded the early phase at 2% per month. That is 24% simple, north of 27% compounded. Panvel was easier. Navi Mumbai, in his telling, has had “a long frustrating journey in its rise.”

His one-line fix for Navi Mumbai: shift the Mantralaya, the High Court, and the CM’s bungalow there.

“I would have shifted the Sachivalaya Mantralaya, High Court, and all these things to Navi Mumbai and made it the new city and center of gravity.”

Move the lever, the city follows. Brasilia logic, applied to Maharashtra.

Mumbai 3.0 vs Thane — and why UP is the dark horse

He calls it for Navi Mumbai over Thane, “for sure, for sure, for sure.” The case: a new airport, land equivalent to half of Mumbai sitting empty, Alibaug for hospitality on the flank, and incoming IT, data centres, education, hospitals.

The surprise pick is Uttar Pradesh. He cites the new Jewar airport — pitched as the largest in Asia — plus religious destinations (Ayodhya is the unspoken word) and infrastructure spend. In his book, Mumbai 3.0 and UP are the two destinations that will compete for the next decade’s growth crown.

Government as silent partner

Asked about Fadnavis’s complaint that home prices are too high despite builder benefits, he doesn’t flinch:

“When I sell a place for 50,000 rupees, 25,000 rupees is government collection. GST, stamp duty, development charges, other charges, land under construction, labor cess… government is equally partner in terms of the price rise.”

50% of the sticker price is tax. Income tax sits on top of that. Useful number to keep in pocket.

Politicians then vs now: money is no longer the constraint

He recalls the early Bombay-Pune Expressway debate — Rs 1,650 crore needed, Rs 5 crore in the kitty. MSRDC was created specifically to raise bonds because nobody — private or government — had the money. Today, he says, capital is not the bottleneck. Viability is. If a project pencils, money shows up.

Fadnavis on execution, Vasantdada Patil on instinct

Asked the most consequential CM of the last 50 years (current one excluded), he names Vasantdada Patil — a “first standard fail” with extraordinary grassroots clarity. On execution, though, he gives the crown to Fadnavis without qualifiers: “no comparison in what he has been able to do.” Most politicians know what to do; very few execute.

The one capital loss and the lesson

“The only project where I had a capital loss was in New Bombay when I bought a plot and the frenzy was that I lost four times. I couldn’t get a plot… So, the last time I just went overboard and I did and I made a cash loss.”

Four failed bids, one revenge bid, one loss. The takeaway he insists on isn’t “buy cheap” — it’s “buy efficient.” Expensive land can still pay if the math works. He frames the Powai-Thane-Fortune City portfolio as legacy projects: he could have made more money elsewhere, but the satisfaction is “uncomparable.”

The minister, the partnership, and the running

The closer is the spiciest stretch. Bhargava brings up K.P. Singh’s autobiography — the bit where Bansi Lal harassed him into hiding. Has Hiranandani lived something similar?

“Of course. I have… I had to run away also… it’s not about what you do wrong, it’s about what they want you to do. Like one of them wanted his son to be my partner and I didn’t accept it. So, it was kind of victimization too.”

He won’t name the politician. He says it’s part of the game when you deal with land — you can’t opt out and stay in the business.

Key Takeaways

Hiranandani borrowed at 2% per month to start Powai. Bank credit was unavailable.
50% of a Mumbai flat’s sticker price is government collection (GST + stamp duty + development charges + cesses), before income tax.
His top two markets for the next decade: Navi Mumbai (Mumbai 3.0) and Uttar Pradesh, anchored by Jewar airport and religious tourism.
India’s ease of doing business: 4-5/10 in his estimate.
His prescription for Navi Mumbai: relocate Mantralaya, the High Court, and the CM’s residence there.
Capital is no longer scarce for viable projects — a structural shift from the early-90s era when Rs 1,650 crore for the Bombay-Pune Expressway looked impossible.
Best executor among Maharashtra CMs of the last 50 years: Devendra Fadnavis, “no comparison.”
One capital loss in his career: a revenge bid for a New Bombay plot after losing four prior tenders.
Confirms K.P. Singh-style political extortion: a politician asked him to take his son on as partner, refused, “had to run away.”

Claude’s Take

The interesting thing about a Hiranandani interview isn’t the strategy talk — it’s the cracks where the strategy stops being strategy. The 50% government-take number is the kind of thing nobody in real estate volunteers in public, and he says it like a man explaining gravity. The Bombay-Pune Expressway anecdote — Rs 5 crore in the treasury against a Rs 1,650 crore ask — is a useful reminder that India’s infrastructure boom is genuinely a generational shift, not just narrative.

The Mumbai 3.0 + UP call is conventional builder-speak with one edge: the confidence that Navi Mumbai overtakes Thane. That is a real prediction with a real timeline. Worth filing and checking in five years.

The “had to run away” disclosure is the bit that earns the score. Every developer over a certain size has these stories; very few say them on camera, even in the carefully fogged way he does. The line “it’s not about what you do wrong, it’s about what they want you to do” is the cleanest description of the Indian land-business compact you’ll get from someone still in business.

Score: 7. It’s a short, dense interview, no fluff, with one or two real-information moments. Not transcendent, but high signal-to-runtime.