MMRDA says it’s prepared to pay compensation for buying Kanjurmarg land for Metro automobile shed

Months after Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray boasted that the land acquired in Kanjurmarg for the event of the Metro automobile shed was secured freed from value, the Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities, in its newest software to the Bombay High Court, expressed its willingness to amass the land by granting all advantages and compensation to whoever could also be profitable within the authorized dispute.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has approached the Bombay High Court looking for its approval to begin its work associated to the development of an built-in automobile shed for Metro strains 3, 4 and 6 on the disputed web site in Kanjurmarg. An software on this regard was filed by the MMRDA within the High Court final month. The case was heard within the courtroom on Tuesday, which mentioned that it could hear the case lastly on March 12.
In the appliance, the MMRDA argued that with out the development of the automobile shed, Metro strains 3 (Colaba-Bandra- SEEPZ), 4 (Kasarwadavali-Wadala) and 6 (Lokhandwala-Vikhroli) can’t be commissioned and made obtainable for the usage of public. Besides the issues precipitated to the general public, the delay would even incur monetary prices to the MMRDA, the appliance mentioned.
The MMRDA was looking for modification of the courtroom order handed on December 16, 2020, whereby it restrained the authorities from finishing up any development work pertaining to the automobile shed on the mentioned land. The courtroom had put an interim keep on the order handed by the Mumbai suburban district collector on 1 October 2020, allotting 102 acres of land in Kanjurmarg to the MMRDA for development of an built-in automobile shed.
Maharashtra authorities expresses its willingness to compensate whoever wins the litigation to amass the Kanjurmarg land
The Maharashtra authorities and the Centre are embroiled in a authorized dispute over the possession of the land allotted by the state for the development of the automobile depot that was earlier deliberate at Aarey Colony, an space in suburban Goregaon. After the district collector earmarked the land to the Metro physique, the Centre had filed a petition within the HC final 12 months, difficult the collector’s order and claiming that the land at Kanjurmarg belongs to its Salt Department.
Now, because the authorized dispute drags on, the MMDRA has mentioned in its software that it has, at no time, tried to assert the possession of the land and expressed its need to compensate whomsoever be the profitable get together within the dispute.
“The MMRDA is ready and willing to undertake to give all benefits and compensation to which the owner and/or the lessee would be entitled on the acquisition of the said land to whomsoever may be the successful party in the dispute,” the appliance filed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on the Bombay High Court final month mentioned.
Earlier, the Bombay HC had additionally slammed the collector’s order relating to the switch of Kanjurmarg land for the metro automobile shed, saying that it borders on fraud.
Aaditya Thackeray had boasted buying the disputed Kanjurmarg land freed from value
This stand by the MMRDA, a physique of the Government of Maharashtra that’s answerable for preparation of Regional Plan for MMR and the infrastructure improvement of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, is in sharp distinction to what Maharashtra Environment smugly boasted again in October 2020. Thackeray had then claimed that the automobile depot land in Kanjurmarg was acquired without cost of value.
“Car depot of Metro 6 & Metro 3 will be common at Kanjurmarg. The land for the same has been handed over to @MMRDAOfficial last week, for a sum of ₹0/- (Free of cost) and soil testing has begun. It was always told it’ll cost more than ₹10,000 crores. It happens for be free,” Thackeray tweeted.
3) Car depot of Metro 6 & Metro 3 will probably be frequent at Kanjurmarg. The land for a similar has been handed over to @MMRDAOfficial final week, for a sum of ₹0/- (Free of value) and soil testing has begun. It was at all times advised it’ll value greater than ₹10,000 crores. It occurs for be free— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) October 11, 2020
The Metro automobile shed challenge at Aarey had been a battleground between environmentalists, who have been allegedly backed by vested pursuits and the Mumbai Metro Rail authorities, ever because the plans have been first drawn up in 2015. The earlier authorities led by Devendra Fadnavis in an in a single day operation on October 4, 2019, had ordered to fell 2,141 bushes on the proposed 33-hectare web site, following a Bombay High Court verdict.
However, the Shiv Sena, then a accomplice in a BJP-led state authorities, had actively backed the so-called environmentalist and had lent a political voice to these protesting the felling of the bushes. Sena prince Aaditya Thackeray, now the state atmosphere minister, spearheaded the motion towards the development of the Metro Car shed and was instrumental in getting the challenge shifted to Kanjurmarg.
Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities already knew beforehand the land was underneath dispute: Report
Even although Aaditya Thackeray and the Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities preened themselves on buying the land without cost, a report printed within the Times of India in December 2020 revealed that the state authorities knew beforehand that the Kanjurmarg land it had finalised for the Metro card shed was underneath litigation. The report mentioned that the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra authorities have been already knowledgeable in regards to the challenges in regard to the Kanjurmarg land web site in January 2020, about 9 months earlier than the federal government determined to shift the Metro automobile shed from the Aarey colony.
A committee headed by Chief Secretary Manoj Saunik had turned down the plan of a depot at Kanjurmarg in its submissions made in January 2020. The 98-page report submitted by Saunik revealed that officers of Mumbai suburban Collectorate admitted that the land at Kanjurmarg is “still sub judice”.