Maharashtra government proposes reservation change of plot at Kanjurmarg for Metro car shed

The Maharashtra government on Friday proposed to change the reservation of the contentious 43.76-hectare Kanjurmarg plot for “Metro car depot and allied uses”.

The Maharashtra government on Friday proposed to change the reservation of the contentious 43.76-hectare Kanjurmarg plot for “Metro car depot and allied uses”.

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The plot is at the centre of a row between the state and Union governments after the former moved the Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) car shed there from Aarey Milk Colony, which was picked by the previous BJP-led government in Maharashtra to construct the depot.

Nirmal Chaudhari, under-secretary, urban development department (UDD) of the state government issued a notification on Friday to change the Kanjurmarg plot’s reservation and has invited suggestions and objections from the public over the proposal.

The plot has reservations for various public purposes, including affordable housing, police staff quarters, garden/park, and municipal school, among others in the Draft Development Plan 2034 and Development Control and Promotion Regulation 2034.

The land parcel is proposed to be transferred to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which in December 2018 had requested the state government for its allotment to build the car shed.

A row over the ownership of the plot erupted recently after the Central government’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said that the land belongs to it. In a letter to Maharashtra chief secretary Sanjay Kumar, the department contended that the saltpan land is remit of the Salt Commissioner, who reports to DPIIT. This led to a clash between the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Agadhi (MVA) government – comprising Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress – and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government.