Vashi is an upmarket residential as well as commercial township in the city of Navi Mumbai. It is a premier city in Navi Mumbai and was one of the first "nodes" developed by CIDCO.
Vashi's reputation of being organized, but not too large or crowded like "the big city", has led to the continued growth of its resident and commuter population. Vashi is among the top ten most developed zones in the Mumbai Metropolitan area.The estimate population of Vashi is around 400,000.
Vashi is bordered by the Sion-Panvel Highway (plus the railway station) and Nerul to the south, the Thane-Belapur Road and Sanpada/Turbhe to the east, Khairane Channel and Kopar khairane to the north, and Thane creek to the west. It is one of two Navi Mumbai nodes that directly connect to Mumbai across Thane creek (via the Mankhurd-Vashi Bridge), the other being Airoli to the north. The township center, arguably, would be Shivaji Chowk, a central square located on the Vashi-Turbhe road. It is the site of a large bronze statue of the Maratha warrior-king and folk hero Chhatrapati Shivaji on a horse, and of an upcoming museum exhibit about him. The chowk is surrounded by Sector 17, the cineplex, the fire station and the bus depot.
Vashi station complex is built to ISO 9002 quality standards and has set a new benchmark for 21st century railway stations.
The International InfoTech Park (IIP) in the Station Complex is spread over an area of 80 hectares with almost 6 lack sq. ft. of built up space of the Vashi Railway Station at its epicenter. The IIP houses shops specific to Computer Industry.
There are five Shopping malls functioning in Vashi, named Center One, City Center, Raghuleela, Inorbit and Palm Beach Galleria. They host a variety of large and small retailers, including Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Globus, MAX, shoppers stop and Crosswords as well as a number of fast food joints and franchises. Almost 5 other malls are under construction which should get ready in next couple of years.
Vashi also hosts a number of colleges. Father Agnel College (formally, Father Conceicao Rodrigues Institute of Technology , ICLES Motilal Jhunjhunwala College and Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil College (formerly known as Modern College) are among the well known colleges in the node.
The Mumbai Divisional SSC Board, one of the divisional boards of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education is headquartered in Vashi in Sector 16-A.
