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  Activists warn legal action over Metro 2

Activists warn legal action over Metro 2

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : May 27, 2016, 12:54 am IST
Updated : May 27, 2016, 12:54 am IST

NGOs and resident associations have come together on a common platform called “Apna Mumbai Abhiyan”, hinting at taking the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to court for its dec

NGOs and resident associations have come together on a common platform called “Apna Mumbai Abhiyan”, hinting at taking the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to court for its decision to build an elevated Metro line 2 between Dahisar and Mankhurd instead of underground as earlier planned. The activists have claimed that MMRDA has not taken the public into consideration as it has not conducted any public meetings for inviting suggestions and objections.

The activists also claimed that building elevated metro corridors over already congested arterial roads would permanently damage the cityscape. Incidentally, the former Congress-NCP government had opted for underground metro corridors over elevated metro corridors in the city. However, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also chairman of MMRDA, in June 2015 announced that all metro corridors in the city would be elevated as these would drastically bring down costs of building metro corridors.

Dahisar-Mankhurd Metro corridor is part of Metro 2 (Dahisar-Charkop—Bandra-Mankhurd), which was earlier planned underground, but was later turned into an elevated corridor. The line was also divided into three parts i.e. Dahisar-DN Nagar, DN Nagar-BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex) and BKC-Mankhurd.

Hansel D’Souza of Apna Mumbai Abhiyan claimed that the state was applying different standards to different areas in the city. “If underground is costly, why is the state building the Colaba - Seepz Metro 3 underground corridor in south Mumbai Also, south Mumbai is less densely populated as compared to the suburbs,” he questioned.

Further, Nitin Killawala of Apna Mumbai Abhiyan added it was a myth that an elevated metro corridor was cheaper. Also, maintenance of elevated corridors was costlier than that of underground corridors. The activists claimed that they would take MMRDA to court as the proposed elevated metro corridors would irreversibly damage quality of life and environment in the densely populated western suburbs. Such corridors would cause physical and visual clutter, further worsening the level of congestion and chaos.