MMRDA passes Wadala TT master plan

Mumbai: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Friday passed the master plan for the development of Wadala truck terminal (WTT). The tenders for the project will be floated by next year, said MMRDA authorities. The authorities plan to develop the 64-hectare plot on the lines of the posh Bandra-Kurla Complex, with business hubs, schools, hospitals, residential complexes, inter-state bus terminal etc. “The master plan has been accepted by the authorities on Thursday. We are looking forward to the bidding process since the project is been on papers for the past three years,” said a senior MMRDA official.

The MMRDA is the special planning authority (SPA) of this project and aims to revamp the place into a transport hub. Once developed, WTT will get monorail and Metro 4 (Wadala-Kasarwadavali) connectivity as well. Also there will be connectivity to the eastern freeway.

The plan was prepared by Edifice Consultants private limited, the implementation was delayed after Bombay Goods Transport Association (BGTI) and other truckers association raised issues over the truck terminal. The terminal was earlier sub-leased to Bombay Goods Transport Association (BGTI) in 1999, however several irregularities were found in allotting the office spaces among its members at the terminal plot by the BGTA.   

The project is only limited to 64-hectare out of the 109 hectares owned by the authority. Of the reaming land parcel, 27 hectare is designated as salt-pan land. Amid controversies, a realty firm led by BJP leader Mangal Prabhat Lodha had purchased nine hectare of land at Wadala for a residential township plan in 2011.