Shiv Sena headed MSRDC denies changes in expressway

Mumbai: While Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had assured Shahapur farmers that improvement in the alignment of the Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressw-ay will be ensured and that their agricultural land will not be used for construction of the Expressway, the Sena headed Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), and the implementing agency of expressway has ruled out any possibility of such change.

Mr Thackeray, a week ago, had met farmers at his residence where he had assured them that their land would not be used for any purpose other than agriculture. Radheshyam Moplawar, managing director, MSRDC, said, “There has been restrain from several parties when the issue of land has come up. Many from Shahapur and Kalyan too had opposed. However, let me tell you that there is no change of alignment on the cards yet. There should be concrete diversion of the alignment proposals from the opposing parties, and the same is not visible or proposed yet. Hence, there are no plans of tweaking alignment as of now.”

Cabinet minister Eknath Shinde, Shiv Sena MLA from Thane district, heads MSRDC. However, when contacted, he was not available for comments. The state needs around 20,000 hectares of land for construction of the expressway and smart townships along the alignment.  Out of 20,000 hectares required for the construction of the expressway, between Bhiwandi and Nagpur, around 84 per cent of the land is agricultural, 13 per cent fallow land and 1.92 per cent forestland.