14 February,2022 07:38 AM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
A Metro Line 9 project site. File pic/Nimesh Dave
After opposition from locals in Rai and Murdha, Mira Bhayandar, the MMRDA's Metro car shed project for Line 9 has faced objections from NGO Watchdog Foundation. It has raised questions on the process of acquisition of the land, which it said would destroy houses of over 500 families.
Watchdog Foundation's trustees Nicholas Almeida and Advocate Godfrey Pimenta have written to CM Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, urban development minister Reena Shinde, Maharashtra chief secretary, Thane district collector, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and other officials, seeking to spare the locals' land.
The controversy is surrounding the proposed car shed for Metro Line 9 connecting Mira Road to Bhayandar. The letter stated that a December 3 notification doesn't comply with the provisions of Section 11 of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. It mandates that locals are informed of the acquisition, but neither any notices have been served nor pasted or banners erected in the area, it added.
"The manner in which the proposed development is being implemented and imposed on the locals is questionable," it said. Instead of the original Metro Line 9 route, "a more circuitous route is being planned, which lacks technical parameters and would entail demolition of 500-plus houses of locals due to the proposed road widening... The very act of the issuance of notification under Section 11 is totally improper, unjustifiable and has been issued with malafide intention," the letter added.
The key map uploaded for Metro Line 9 on MMRDA's website shows the car shed near Radha Soami Satsang ground, whereas the December notification indicates a new site altogether, it stated.
The land proposed for acquisition is not suitable, as the car shed would be situated between thickly populated Murdha and Rai villages, and the construction work/daily maintenance of Metro rakes would be a great nuisance to the villagers, it added.
"The originally proposed land was at least 2 km away from the present site. It appears that the deviation is to protect the interest of some private builders whose land was about to be acquired... The present proposed plot is an agricultural land, and will affect the livelihood of the local farmers... The proposed acquisition will take away their right to dignified life. Therefore, the land should not be acquired, particularly when other alternatives are available, that too, at lesser cost," it added.
The development is being carried out in secretive manner, it said. The larger public interest would be served if farmers, whose lands are proposed to be acquired, are spared and the Metro car shed is planned at the original site.
In the original proposal, salt pan land belonging to the central government (salt commissioner) was to be acquired for the proposed car shed.
