Third panel by Maharashtra government to deliberate between Aarey and Kanjurmarg

tanushree.venkatraman@htlive.com

tanushree.venkatraman@htlive.com

The Metro car shed was shifted to a plot in Kanjurmarg but work was halted by the SC. (HT PHOTO)

After two committees that presented divergent views on the correct plot for the Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) car shed, a third panel appointed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Wednesday will take the final call on the Aarey and Kanjurmarg plots.

A senior official from the state government said, “The earlier reports did not consider the fact that the Aarey plot would prove to be insufficient in the coming years. Therefore, the committee has been asked to study Aarey and also look at Kanjurmarg’s feasibility as an integrated car shed for Metro-3, 4 (Wadala-Kasarvadavali) and 6 (Swami Samath Nagar to Vikhroli), which was also not considered before.”

While the government had also stated that it is looking at a plot in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), the terms of reference for the committee does not mention that plot.

The two committees appointed earlier had studied nine plots before presenting their recommendations.

In 2015, the Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had appointed a committee under the then metropolitan commissioner UPS Madan. The panel had recommended building an integrated car shed for Metro-3 and 6 at Kanjurmarg. The committee had stated that the Kanjurmarg option becomes “preferential” when seen together with line 6.

“Both the lines, when developed as one system, can share the same depot facilities at Kanjurmarg and operationally complement each other,” the 2015 report stated.

It had also recommended a double decker depot at Aarey in case the Kanjurmarg land is not available.

“The option entails a substantially smaller impact of only 446 trees and the depot area is also reduced to 20.82 hectares instead of the present 30 hectares,” the report stated.

In 2019, Thackeray, after staying the construction at Aarey, appointed a committee under additional chief secretary (finance) Manoj Saunik. The panel, which submitted its report last year in January, stated that Aarey would be the most viable option.

It said, “There is no alternative site available for the car shed for line 3 which could be selected which would be environmentally suitable and available at reasonable cost.”

It stated that the government must allow the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation to go ahead with the construction at Aarey and also ask the agency to take additional possible measures to expedite “work of the depot to make up for the time lost due to litigation and otherwise.”

While the committee studied the Kanjurmarg option, it stated that shifting the car shed to Kanjurmarg would have huge technical, operational, financial repercussions. It also stated that “shifting of depot would not address the requirements of line 3 and would also hamper the frequency of operations of both lines 3 and line 6 (sic).