Click to play videoMumbai: The recent murders of TV executive Neeraj Grover in Mumbai and the Noida double murders have focused attention on the suburbs. So are the suburbs safe and are the police equipped to deal with crime?
The satellite township of Navi Mumbai is growing by leaps and bounds but the law and order situation is taking a back seat.
Khargar is one of the fastest growing hubs of Navi Mumbai with swanky malls, fancy apartment complexes, a power plant, and steadily climbing real estate prices.
But to keep the place safe, Khargar does not even have a single police station with the nearest one is there in Kalamboli.
Not far away, in Vashi's plush Sector 8, earlier this month, PV Sriram awoke one Sunday morning to find his Mahindra Bolero stolen from inside his building compound.
Police told him it was the eight such thefts in this area in recent months.
"When you face something like this, a theft in a secure environment this casts a reflection on the policing in the area," Sriram says.
Motor vehicle theft, robbery, and housebreak are the biggest problems plaguing this satellite township. Such incidents have increased by almost 30 per cent last year leaving only some families untouched.
Police blame the large floating migrant population working on the non-stop construction here. But with a virtually invisible police presence on the streets, it's signs warning of housebreak and robbery that alert the public in Navi Mumbai.
While Mumbai has over 50,000 policemen, Navi Mumbai has just 2,300 policemen.
Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Ramrao Wagh says, "Four hundred and fifty constables are being trained this year for Navi Mumbai and 600 more will join next year."
And two new police stations including one for Khargar are in the pipeline. But top police officials privately admit even this is not enough.
And residents in Sector 8, for example, have decided to help themselves by closing off their lanes with gates and employing private security guards.
And of course, hoping their cars are still in sight the next morning.
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