In a new series starting today, Estatelister.com identifies India's fastest emerging real estate hotspots.

Today, EstateLister.com explains why Airoli, a town near New Mumbai, Mumbai's satellite city, has emerged as a good real estate investment in the last decade.

Next week we will bring to you why Yamuna Expressway near Noida in Uttar Pradesh is fast emerging as a real estate investment hub.

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Till 1998, Airoli was just another suburb on the Thane-Belapur road. However, the completion of Mulund-Airoli bridge in January 1999 changed that. This was the second link between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai (first one was the Vashi-Mankhurd bridge).

This bridge is important in many ways because it meets the Eastern express highway at the intersection of Goregaon-Mulund link road as well. The resulting travel time-savings was significant.

More importantly, the bridge acted like a catalyst for the development that was coming in this region in the next twelve years.

Another major reason for this belt's development was the dedicated local train service between Thane and Vashi, which has reduced travel time between the two most important junctions in the region to 30 minutes. Both the bridge and local train services have contributed to a large extent in making Airoli more accessible.

Airoli and Diva village are the two main residential areas here.

CIDCO -- City Industrial Development Corporation -- developed the area surrounding Airoli and handed it over to NMMC -- Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation for administration.

Airoli is divided systematically into 28 sectors, of which more than 20 have been developed till date.

Airoli has emerged as a real estate hotspot because of several reasons, top three being:

1. Information technology hub

2. Good connectivity

3. Excellent educational institutions

Information technology presence in the region

The IT industry has taken to Airoli like a fish takes to water. Proximity to Mulund, Thane, Vashi are all huge plus-points of Airoli -- and these are the areas from where the IT professionals come to work at Airoli.

Mindspace, Airoli is a 50-acre SEZ -- Special Economic Zone -- in the region. Besides this Patni Knowledge Park and Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City are located nearby as well.

Good connectivity

As described earlier, the connectivity both by road and rail has improved a lot. With majority of roadway modernisation complete, the Thane-Belapur road's capacity to handle traffic has improved.

Also the BEST buses and NMMT buses have increased their frequency in the region, which has improved passenger convenience from a public transport perspective.

Educational institutions

Airoli and the development of educational institutions have added another dimension to the development of the region. The DAV public school is an example.

Now, there are a lot of educational institutions in Airoli which makes it a prime candidate for modern housing in the multi-storeyed apartment format. This is the predominant development we are seeing in the real estate sector in Airoli with a lot of projects at key locations in an under construction or ready to move in phase.

Overall, Airoli is among the real estate hotspots in the Mumbai MMR region, especially for the Navi Mumbai and central suburbs region.