‘Non-technical’ people cannot take a call on depot, says MMRC MD

People with no understanding of the technical process can’t decide where the car depot for Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) should be built, Ashwini Bhide, Mumbai Metro

People with no understanding of the technical process can’t decide where the car depot for Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) should be built, Ashwini Bhide, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation’s (MMRC) managing director, said at a public interaction on Tuesday, while commenting on the staunch opposition of citizens to cutting of 2,072 trees in Aarey for the project.

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Recently, the Shiv Sena-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) tree authority also stalled the proposal for cutting trees, after getting 82,000 objections from citizens. “People think we are cruel hearted, but there is no option. A car depot can’t be isolated. It has to be connected to the corridor. Building a car depot in Aarey is a technical decision and no non-technical person can decide where it has to be built,” she said, at the V-Citizens Action Network event in Colaba.

While citizens have questioned the move to not consider the land in Kanjurmarg for the depot, Bhide said the land is not available. “The land in Kanjurmarg is 10km away from the last station planned. We were ready to redesign the corridor, but the land is stuck in litigation since 1996,” Bhide said.

While there are talks of considering the Kanjurmarg land for Metro-6 (Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli) car depot, Bhide said the MMRDA was looking for an alternative for the depot for the line too. Zoru Bhathena, an activist, said, “You don’t need technical knowledge to know that our city needs green lungs to breathe and a green sponge to absorb floodwaters. A depot can be constructed anywhere. All that is needed is two tracks to take the bogey there. No technical knowledge is needed for this plain fact.”