E-Paper
‘Ready to give BJP credit, not an ego issue for me’: Uddhav Thackeray on Kanjurmarg Metro car shed
The Bombay high court had on Wednesday stayed the order passed by Mumbai suburban district collector allotting 102 acres of saltpan land in Kanjurmarg area for the construction of an integrated metro car shed.
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said that the Kanjurmarg Metro car shed is not an ego issue for him, and he is open for a resolution through dialogue with the Centre.
The Centre and the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government are locked in a tussle over ownership of the land earmarked by the state for constructing the car shed depot which was earlier planned at Aarey Colony, a green belt in Mumbai.
“Derailing each other’s projects would serve no purpose... the Kanjurmarg car shed land dispute is not in the interest of citizens. I am ready to give credit to the opposition for the project... this is not an ego issue for me, as being described,” Thackeray said during a live web cast.
“We have all documents to prove that the land belongs to the state government. If there is a controversy over the ownership of land, the issue can be resolved through dialogue,” Thackeray added.
The Bombay high court had on Wednesday stayed the order passed by Mumbai suburban district collector allotting 102 acres of saltpan land in Kanjurmarg area for the construction of an integrated metro car shed. The court said that the manner in which the land was transferred to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) “bordered on committing fraud on power”.
The bench restrained the MMRDA from carrying out any further work at the site. In the order, the high court stated that the decision-making process leading to the October 1 order did not pass the test of judicial scrutiny.
The previous BJP-led state government had decided to construct the car shed for Metro line 3 (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) at Aarey Colony, despite opposition from environmentalists and activists to the vast tree-cutting for the project.
The present Maharashtra Viks Aghadi (MVA) government - comprising the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress - recently took a decision to shift the car shed from the Aarey Colony to Kanjurmarg.
