The board recommended that the new metro-centre or Navi Mumbai, as it is now called, be developed to accommodate a population of 21 lacs. This recommendation was accepted by the government of Maharashtra. Accordingly, the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited was incorporated on 17 March 1970 under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. By February 1970, the government notified for acquisition of privately owned land covering 86 villages and measuring 159.54 km² within the present limits of Navi Mumbai. Land belonging to nine other villages, measuring 28.70 km², was additionally designated in August 1973 for inclusion in the project area.