Metro depots to come up on saltpan land

While on the one hand Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has claimed that constructing a car depot for the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 corridor at Kanjurmarg, instead of the proposed Aarey Colony site, would escalate the cost of the project and the land there is marshy, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on the other hand may ask the state government to explore the option of using salt pan land, which is also considered marshy, for the construction of its upcoming metro corridors.

The state urban development department, in October 2015, had directed the MMRDA to prepare a plan for construction of affordable housing on saltpan land in the city, which has total of 2,177 hectares (5,379 acres) of such land.

“We have conducted a study and found that the figure, if considered for constructing houses, will be very low and the land available is not more than 20 hectares and one cannot construct much on it. So, we are thinking of suggesting that the urban development department grant salt pan land for constructing car depots for our metro corridors, considering we face problems while acquiring land for such depots in the city,” said a senior MMRDA official.

“If we want to use the saltpan land for metro corridors — which would be marshy, we can adopt a process to reclaim the land, which could increase the available area from 20 hectares,” added the MMRDA official.

The Maharashtra government has a total of 4,856 hectares of saltpan land lying vacant. The study carried out on the vacant saltpans land in the city included numerous areas such as Dahisar,

Goregaon, Mulund, Bhandup, Kanjurmarg, Nahur, Ghatkopar, Turbhe, Mandale, Chembur, Wadala and Anik Depot, Malwani, Pahadi, Turbhe, Mandale.

Areas such as Mandala, Wadala, Pahadi in Goregaon, Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Mulund are from where the proposed DN Nagar-Mankhurd- Mandala Metro-2B, Wadala-Ghhatkopar-Thane -Kasarvadavali Metro-4 corridor and DN Nagar-Dahisar Metro-2A corridors pass and the government authority could use the land in these areas for its metro corridors.

However, environmentalists said that the authority had double standards. “It clearly shows that the MMRDA is adopting double standards. If for Metro-3 marshy land was not feasible, how could it be so for other metro corridors It shows that making use of the Aarey colony site for the Metro-3 car depot was just to shoot up the real estate price in the area,” said D. Stalin, an environmentalist from the Vanashakti non-governmental organisation.