A WIN-WIN FOR METRO AND AAREY?

On October 1, when Maharastra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray decided to shift the controversial metro car depot from green zone Aarey Milk Colony in Mumbai’s western suburb of Goregaon to Kanjurmarg, an eastern suburb 7.5 km away, he had done his homework.

- Kiran D. Tare

He knew the Centre had staked a claim on the Kanjurmarg land and that there could be a legal battle ahead, but Thackeray trusted the opinion of his offi­cial team and gave the go­ahead, no mat­ er that it led to a sledging match and allegations by the opposition BJP.

The metro car depot at Aarey, part of a 1,800-acre suburban forest, was to ser­ vice trains on the Mumbai Metro’s longest route, the 33.5 km underground Colaba­ Bandra­SEEPZ line (Aqua Line­3). The new site at Kanjurmarg will function as a service centre for three routes—Line­3, Line­4 (32.3 km Wadala­Ghatkopar­ Thane­Kasarvadavli route) and Line­6 (14.5 km Lokhandwala­Jogeshwari­ Vikhroli­Kanjurmarg route). The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Develop­ment Authority (MMRDA), the nodal agency for construction of the metro lines, is going to integrate Line­3 and Line­6 through a 1.5 km elevated viaduct at SEEPZ (Santacruz Electronic Export Zone), a special economic zone.

The Union ministry of commerce and industries filed a petition in the Bombay High Court on September 22, through the deputy salt commissioner, staking its claim on the Kanjurmarg land, and seek­ ing a stay on the Maharashtra govern­ment’s plan to develop the disused salt pan stretch for metro works. The high court will hear the petition on December 4. A private player, Mahesh Kumar Garodia, too, claims he is a lessee of 500 acres of land there.