Mumbai: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) plans to monetise the land above the underground metro 11 corridor that will pass through Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) land.
Senior officials have revealed that commercial development by constructing buildings for office spaces has been planned on MbPT land. However, sources close to MbPT said that the port trust had not yet given its nod for such a decision.
Metro 11 (Wadala to GPO), which is an extension of the ongoing metro 4 (Wadala-Kasarvadavli), was recently approved by the MMRDA in its meeting chaired by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Part of the 14km-long metro alignment passes through the MbPT-owned eastern seafront, where the port trust wants the corridor to be underground.
“We are planning to develop the land above the underground metro and construct towers to lease out spaces for commercial purposes. This will fund the underground metro cost as well,” said a senior official from MMRDA.
The underground metro will cost Rs 2,000 crore and the MbPT has been asked to share the cost which it has denied.
“We were informed about MMRDA’s plan but we have not given the nod yet. We demanded an underground metro because we have plans to develop the eastern seafront. We are pressing for alternative plans to resolve the issue amicably,” said an official from the MbPT. The total cost of the project is Rs 8,000 crore.
Initially, the MMRDA had asked for south Mumbai land owned by MbPT in exchange for the underground metro since the port trust did not have enough funds to share the project cost.
