Maharashtra government-appointed panel appointed to suggest alternate Metro car shed visits Aarey and Kanjurmarg

The nine-member committee appointed by the Maharashtra government to take a call on the Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) and Metro-6 (Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli) car shed, on Monday visited the Aarey and Kanjurmarg plots to look at the proposed sites

The nine-member committee appointed by the Maharashtra government to take a call on the Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) and Metro-6 (Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli) car shed, on Monday visited the Aarey and Kanjurmarg plots to look at the proposed sites.

The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on January 6 formed a nine-member committee under state chief secretary Sanjay Kumar to look at alternate plots for building the car shed for Metro-3 and Metro-6. (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

Two officials privy to the development said that the committee has held three meetings till date and Monday’s visit was the first site visit for the committee. “The members visited both the plots to understand the pros and cons. The committee will have another meeting in the coming days to take a final decision,” said an official, who did not wish to be named.

Manisha Mhaiskar, principal secretary, environment, who is part of the committee, said, “We had a site visit today, and we will most likely submit the report within this month.”

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on January 6 formed a nine-member committee under state chief secretary Sanjay Kumar to look at alternate plots for building the car shed for Metro-3 and Metro-6. The committee has to specifically look at the plots in Aarey and Kanjurmarg and submit its report in a month.

While the earlier committee, appointed under additional chief secretary Manoj Saunik in 2019, had also met citizens to consider their views, sources said that the current committee appointed under the chief secretary has not met with any citizen representatives yet.

The two committees appointed earlier had studied nine plots before presenting their recommendations.

In 2015, the Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had appointed a committee under the then metropolitan commissioner UPS Madan that recommended building an integrated car shed for Metro-3 and 6 at Kanjurmarg. In 2019, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, after staying the works at Aarey, appointed a committee under Saunik. The committee, which submitted its report in January 2020, stated that Aarey would be the most viable option.