MMRDA likely to give BKC land for bullet train terminal

Mumbai: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has indicated that it is willing to give up land at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project of a Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train. Sources said that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked MMRDA officials to both accommodate the underground terminal for the bullet train and construct the International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) above the ground.

Following this, MMRDA is likely to allow underground construction of the bullet train terminal on a 40,000 square metre land parcel at BKC. Both central and state governments were at loggerheads with the MMRDA for earlier denying land to the railway at BKC. The MMRDA had contended that railway should explore possible options at Bandra and Kurla where it owns land parcels.

Pravin Darade, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said, “We have sent our comments to the state government regarding construction of the under terminal for bullet train at BKC. Now, it is up to the state government to go ahead and take a final call on the same.”

UPS Madan, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, and the CM - who also heads MMRDA - were unavailable for comment.

Mr Fadnavis had last year hinted the state’s willingness to give land for the bullet train at BKC. On the last day of “Make in India” week, he declared that the IFSC would be built at BKC along with the bullet train terminal underground. “I will not give you (media) a chance to create controversy out of this,” Mr Fadnavis had said at the time.