BKC plot not feasible for Mumbai Metro shed: Maharashtra govt panel in Jan

Panel looked at splitting depot into Kalina, BKC plots, but warned of challenges of tech feasibility, cost and time overruns

While the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government is eyeing the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) plot for the Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) car shed, a committee appointed by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had rejected the option in January 2020, stating it would not be technically and financially feasible.

On December 16, the Bombay high court stayed the construction of the Metro car shed on a plot in Kanjurmarg following dispute over its ownership. (HT FILE)

The Thackeray government recently shifted the shed from Aarey Colony to Kanjurmarg, however, the Bombay high court (HC) recently ordered an interim stay on the transfer of the land as the Central government also claimed ownership of the land.

The state government had in December 2019 appointed a four-member Manoj Saunik committee to look at alternative sites for the car shed. The committee studied nine plots – Backbay or reclamation behind World Trade Centre, Colaba, Kalina, BKC, Mahalaxmi, Seepz, Kanjurmarg, Dahisar, SRPF Ground and Pahadi Goregaon. However, it stated that Aarey would be the most suitable option for the car depot.

Based on suggestions from citizen groups, the committee had considered bifurcating the depot into two plots (BKC and Kalina) based on the space requirements. Metro-3 requires a 25-hectare plot for its depot.

However, the 98-page Saunik committee report (accessed by HT) states, “Bifurcating depot requirements in two individual plots and accommodating them in Kalina and BKC is also not possible as the tunnels in this reach are already constructed. Any change in the constructed tunnels for joining it to the depot would require dismantling of both up and down tunnels at multiple locations for making two separate connections between the two tracks; and two separate connections with the depot connector (sic).”

It further states, “Moreover the cost of land will be very high and lots of BKC land is reserved for the terminal station of the ongoing bullet train project and other infrastructure development already planned above it. This proposal has dual challenges of technical feasibility and serious cost and time overruns.”

The committee had stated that the land in Kanjurmarg is sub-judice and shifting the car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg would result in numerous technical, financial and operational difficulties apart from majorly delaying the project, which was to be partly operational by 2021.

HT had earlier reported that the BKC option was also rejected in the detailed project report for Metro-3 in November 2011 and by a committee chaired by former metropolitan commissioner UPS Madan.

A senior official from the state government said the government was looking at various possibilities in BKC, including the option of taking the car shed underground. The official said, “The government is keen on Kanjurmarg, considering that it will serve as a common car shed for lines 3, 4 and 6 with an integration with line 14.”

While line 4 will stretch from Wadala-Kasarwadavli, line 6 will be from Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli and 14 is a proposed line from Kanjurmarg-Badlapur. The chief minister, in his address to the state on Sunday, also invited the Central government for a dialogue.