The Andhra Pradesh government has set a plan for self-financing, investment-led urban growth after a high-level team studied Mumbai's city-building and metropolitan governance models. A delegation led by S. Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, visited the Mumbai Metropolitan Region on January 12 and 13. The team learned about advanced regional governance, land-based financing, transit-oriented development (TOD), slum redevelopment, and large-scale city building. Their focus was on using these lessons for the Vizag Economic Region (VER). Senior officials from the VMRDA, Directorate of Town and Country Planning, and State Project Management Unit joined the visit. They met with Maharashtra government agencies like the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA). The delegation studied how Mumbai finances infrastructure mainly through land monetisation, Floor Space Index (FSI) premiums, development rights, and TOD-linked revenues instead of relying on budgetary grants. They paid special attention to the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), a global financial district, and CIDCO’s Navi Mumbai and NAINA models. These are benchmarks for Andhra Pradesh’s Bhogapuram Aerocity and Vizag 2.0 projects. Mr. Suresh Kumar said, "The way Maharashtra has empowered MMRDA and CIDCO, monetised government land, used FSI and TOD to fund Metro and housing, and created global districts such as BKC will directly guide Andhra Pradesh’s efforts to develop VER, Bay City, TOD corridors and new growth hubs across the State, positioning Andhra Pradesh for its next phase of urban and economic transformation." VMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner N. Tej Bharath added, "The VER is now being designed on similar principles—master-planned growth centres, TOD-linked densification, brownfield redevelopment and land-based financing—so that Visakhapatnam becomes a self-sustaining metropolitan economy rather than a grant-dependent city." This approach marks a shift towards building globally competitive cities in Andhra Pradesh using proven Mumbai models.