The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will be moving forward to acquire 15 hectares of land for the Metro Line-6 which will run between Swami Samarth Nagar-Jogeshwari-Vikhroli-Kanjurmarg. The land is required to establish a depot facility for the under-construction metro route. The elevated Metro Line 6 is over 66 per cent complete, the official said. So, the MMRDA was in touch with the state government over the Kanjurmarg land, he added. Until the depot work is not completed, he underlined, the operation of the metro line cannot be initiated. The Metro 6 depot was initially proposed at Kanjurmarg.
However, the former Uddhav Thackeray-led government shifted the Metro 3 depot at Kanjurmarg and decided to have an integrated depot. But the central government’s intervention stalled the plan over a land ownership dispute. Later, the Eknath Shinde-led government once again shifted the Metro 3 depot to Aarey. However, the Metro 6 depot was still under dispute. The state government finally reached a decision. Rajendra Bhosale, Collector of Mumbai Suburban District, said, “The state directed to hand over the land to the MMRDA after verifying the court case.” When further asked about the owner of this land, he replied, “The state is claiming the land ownership. There is litigation going on. But we have decided to hand over the land parcel. An opinion of the Advocate General was sought. It was said that there is litigation on the nearby land, which is stayed. For this particular land, there was a writ petition that has been disposed of since the MMRDA canceled the proposal of the depot on 102 hectares of land. MMRDA is only asking for 15 hectares.” “The next step is that the MMRDA will give an undertaking to our office. It will be to underline that in the future if any litigation is filed or any payments need to be made, the MMRDA will take care of it,” said Bhosale. Metro 6 passes on Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road and is a double-decker structure. The lower deck is an elevated road/ flyover and the upper portion is the metro viaduct (an elevated civil structure that has a rail line). The 2.58km elevated vehicular road section of the engineering structure will provide signal free connection between Western and Eastern Express highways. The overall construction of the 15.31km corridor is about 70% complete. In all, there are 13 stations dotting the alignment.