City to get 300 acre reclaimed garden

Mumbai: The Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) authorities on Thursday said that the city might get a 300-acre garden from the reclaimed land at Haji Bunder, Sewri. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari was speaking on the occasion of the foundation stone ceremony of Mumbai’s first international cruise terminal on port trust land. He said that there were plans to use the muck generated during Metro work and dredging at JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust) to reclaim the land and create a garden.

“The reclaimed land will not be used for any type of commercial activity. In fact, the 300-acre plot will be developed as a garden for Mumbaikars. It will be the biggest garden. There is always a dilemma of disposing muck generated in projects such as the Metro and JNPT dredging. I suggest that this be used to reclaim the land and create a garden,” said Mr Gadkari.

According to Port Trust authorities, around 160 hectare land needs to be reclaimed, of which 140 hectare is already available. Mr Gadkari asked chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to grant special permission to the MbPT to ensure speedy approvals for the garden. During the ceremony, he also asked Mr Fadnavis to make MbPT a special planning authority so that it does not have to wait for the green signal for every project.

Officially, groundwork for the international cruise terminal began on Thursday after the foundation stone was laid by Mr Gadkari. The terminal is spread across two acre land and will cost a total `6,500 crore. Mr Gadkari said, “Once the terminal is operational, I am sure that the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) will increase by three per cent and it will benefit the city.”

Authorities aim to complete the project by June 2019. Around 27 projects have been planned.