Panel to re-examine Kanjurmarg and other sites for metro car shed

The Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday, December 29, said that the idea of building the Mumbai Metro-3 car shed at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) has been scrapped for now at least.

However, the state government has instead decided to set up a high-level committee under Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar to re-examine the legal, technical and financial feasibility of building an integrated carshed at Kanjurmarg. This would be the third panel appointed for the car-shed venture.

This came in the strong view that the 102-acre land at Kanjurmarg earmarked by it for the project, which is now under litigation, was the most suitable site for the project.

The CS-headed panel will also be asked to look afresh for alternative locations to relocate the project as the Bombay High Court earlier this month halted the car-shed construction work till February, 2021.

The Centre has written a letter to the state in this regard on December 1, before the court’s stay on the Kanjurmarg land. The Centre holds 50 per cent equity in the Mumbai Metro-3 project.

According to sources, the formal orders regarding the formation of the committee will be issued in a day or two.

According to reports, the decision to form a new panel had also been taken in the wake of the Centre’s objection to build the carshed at Kanjurmarg in the absence of a detailed techno-financial feasibility study of building an integrated carshed at Kanjurmarg.

The Bombay High Court had on December 16, stayed the Mumbai suburban district collector's decision allotting 102 acres of saltpan land in Kanjurmarg for the car shed, as the Union government contended that its salt department owns this land and not the state.

The BJP-led Central government and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government are locked in a tussle over ownership of the land earmarked by the state for constructing the car shed depot which was earlier planned in Aarey Colony by the then BJP government in the state.

Moreover, Maharashtra Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde had on Wednesday, December 23, said that the state government has started looking for alternative sites for the Mumbai Metro car shed.