Metro 3 corridor may be delayed

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC)’s plan to start the work on the Colaba-Seepz Metro-3 underground corridor right after the monsoon is unlikely to happen with environmentalists and wildlife experts opposing its fresh proposal to construct a metro car depot at Royal Palms. Also, the MMRC in its board meeting on Friday postponed taking a decision on the appointment of civil contractors after it failed to come to a conclusion on the same.

The MMMRC, the implementing agency of Metro-3 corridor, on Thursday announced that the state government is mulling to use the private plot at Royal Palms in Aarey Colony for constructing the car depot of Metro-3 Colaba-Seepz underground corridor instead of the earlier planned site in Aarey Colony. According to the draft of Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), Aarey Colony has been declared as an eco-sensitive zone.

However, the move is set to receive opposition, probably delaying the project further. “The said site of Royal Palms is also included in the draft of the MoEF which has declared areas in a four-kilometre radius of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) as eco-sensitive zones,” D. Stalin of Vanashakti NGO said on Thursday. Along with environmentalists, wildlife experts have also warned to move the National Green Tribunal (NGT) over the proposal of Royal Palms citing that human-animal conflict will increase if Royal Palms shelters a metro car depot.

On the other hand, CM Devendra Fadnavis had directed MMRC officials to award contracts for civil works for the project by May, which also did not happen. This is because the board members, including top bureaucrats from the Central and state government with Ashwini Bhide, managing director of MMRC deferred to take the decision on awarding civil contracts.

However, a senior MMRC official claimed, “We cannot say that the work on the project will not begin after the monsoon as the matter of car depot can continue and we can at least start the work by awarding contracts for the civil construction from the Colaba end.”