SC clears Mumbai Metro 6 car depot on Kanjurmarg salt pan land

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana dismissed a plea by developer Maheshkumar G Garodia challenging a Bombay high court judgment of February 13, 2026

MUMBAI: A key legal tangle facing the proposed Mumbai Metro 6 (Swami Samarth Nagar- Vikhroli-Kanjurmarg) car depot at Kanjurmarg has been cleared, with the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissing the appeal on a Bombay high court order concerning the disputed salt pan land.

SC clears Mumbai Metro 6 car depot on Kanjurmarg salt pan land

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana dismissed a plea by developer Maheshkumar G Garodia challenging a Bombay high court judgment of February 13, 2026. The HC judgment had also dismissed Garodia’s claims to leasehold rights over approximately 250 acres of salt pan land, of which the government had transferred 15 hectares to MMRDA for setting up a car depot for Mumbai Metro 6.

The apex court, after hearing senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani for Garodia and Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta for the government, declined to interfere with the Bombay high court’s order. It also disposed of the pending applications.

The land dispute concerns a larger tract of salt pan land at Kanjurmarg that was originally leased for 99 years from 1917 onwards for salt manufacturing. The land included parcels such as Arthur Salt Works, spread over 251 acres, and Jenkins Salt Works. The salt department had terminated the lease in 2004 while the 99-year-lease period ultimately expired in October 2016.

Garodia’s civil suit challenging the termination remained pending during this period. In a separate judgment delivered on March 17, 2026, the Bombay high court held that the suit had become infructuous following expiry of the 99-year-lease, as the principal relief sought was a declaration that the lease continued to remain valid.

Due to the pending decision on the civil suit, MMRDA had been forced to make temporary arrangements to operate the route without a car depot. With the Supreme Court judgment, the decks have been cleared to ensure that the metro rails for this corridor are provided with the required maintenance and ancillary facilities.

A metro depot is critical to the functioning of a line. It provides facilities for stabling, inspection, maintenance and repair of metro trains. The availability of the Kanjurmarg site is therefore important to the operational infrastructure of Mumbai Metro 6.