MVA government forms third panel to look for Mumbai Metro car shed plot

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Wednesday formed a nine-member committee under state chief secretary Sanjay Kumar for looking at alternate

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Wednesday formed a nine-member committee under state chief secretary Sanjay Kumar for looking at alternate plots for building the car shed for Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) and Metro-6 (Swami Samarth Nagar to Vikhroli). The committee will specifically look at the plots in Aarey and Kanjurmarg.

Metro Kanjurmarg car shed site. (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

According to a government resolution issued on Wednesday, the committee is expected to submit its report in a month. This will be the third committee to look at alternate plots for the Metro-3 car shed since 2015. On December 26, HT had reported that the state is likely to form a committee to resolve the unending dispute.

Thackeray has been squarely criticised by the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the shifting of the shed saying it will delay the project by three years and lead to the escalation of the cost at least by ₹4,000 crore. Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis attacked Thackeray saying the decision of shifting the shed location was to satisfy his ego.

As per the terms of reference, the committee will have to see if the proposed car shed in a 25-hectare plot in Aarey would suffice or would the project require more land and tree-cutting to be undertaken at the plot. Thackeray, in his address to the state in December, had stated that the project would require more land in Aarey, which would end up destroying the green lung.

The committee has to look at the feasibility of integrating lines 3 and 6 and also look at the estimated cost and timeline in doing so.

The committee has to also see if Kanjurmarg will be a better option than Aarey and if the 102-acre plot in Kanjurmarg would suffice future requirements for line 3,6 and 4 (Wadala-Thane-Kasarwadavali). “The committee has to look at all available options and recommend the right plot looking at the future of the project,” the resolution states.

While MVA shifted the car shed from the controversial Aarey to Kanjurmarg, the Bombay High Court (HC) stayed the transfer after the Central government and private parties claimed ownership of the plot. The state government had planned to build an integrated car shed for lines 3,4 and 6 at Kanjurmarg, which would also serve as an integration with the proposed line 14 (Kanjurmarg to Badlapur).

In 2015, the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had formed a committee under former metropolitan commissioner UPS Madan to find an alternative site for the depot. The MVA government, too, in December 2019, had formed a committee under additional chief secretary (finance) Manoj Saunik to study the alternatives.