Metro 9 car shed: Land belongs to our ancestors, say villagers, oppose plan

While the Dahisar East to MiraBhayandar Metro line 9 progresses at a fast pace the issue of the car shed for this line may become a contentious matter for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA The residents of the three villages concerned have opposed the project saying it will displace locals who are dependent on the land for livelihoodMMRDA needs around 90100 acres of land for the construction of the car depot the villagers have claimed The land in the three villages of Rai gaon Morve and Murdha which falls under the jurisdiction of MiraBhayander Municipal Corporation has been identified for the same However as per MMRDA the total land area proposed is 200 haDuring a visit to the villages midday saw banners and posters put up at various places opposing the MMRDA plan PicNimesh DaveRecently midday visited these villages and found that many locals were against the setting up of car depotlsquoFarmers will have no land leftrsquoBJP Corporator Vinod Mhatre said ldquoThe government wants over 90 acres from the three villages for setting up car depot from the three villages but before making the decision they did not take us in confidence The land which the government wants is cultivated by farmers for paddy crops If the car depot is constructed the farmers will have no land left We have interacted with all the villagers in three villages and have arrived at the decision that we donrsquot want this project at the cost of displacement of our landrdquoAccording to the locals around 329 farmers are getting affected in the process of the proposed car depot and another 547 structures are coming in the way of the alignmentThe land in the three villages of Rai gaon Morve and Murdha which falls under the jurisdiction of MiraBhayander Municipal Corporation has been identified for the project PicNimesh DaveBJP Corporator Jayesh Bhoir said ldquoWe have unanimously decided to oppose the car shed plan as it is going to displace our people The question that the authorities need to ask themselves is will the metro be used by our villagers The construction of car shed in our area will only destroy our ancestral landsrdquoRamesh Patil one of the villagers said ldquoWe are not against development but it should not be done at the cost of our lands There is a lot of private land belonging to a single owner that is available near the last station of the metro and the authorities should develop a car shed there Also there is salt pan land available in the area which they can takerdquoDuring our visit we observed that there were banners and posters at various places opposing the MMRDA planKunal Patil a resident of Rai village said ldquoThe occupation of the locals will be compromised if the metro car shed is forcefully built on their cultivating land Development is good but not at the cost of displacing the local villagers The land which the MMRDA plans to acquire belongs to our ancestors where we do farming The majority of the farmers who are going to get affected are dependent on the land for livelihoodsrdquo Patil also said that compensation will not be sufficient to buy another landlsquoMay cause noise and water pollutionrsquoldquoMy land adjoins the metro car shed and if the car shed is built how would I access my farm So the local farmers living in the village would be affected whether the land is acquired or not What about the noise created by the depot We would have to live with it for our entire life and not just us our coming generation will also have to go through thisrdquo Patil saidHe further added ldquoAuthorities are also not clear about how the wastewater is going to be taken out If they are leaving the wastewater in the rivers behind the land acquired then during the high tides the water can enter our salt pans and pollute the water There can be waterlogging in our farms and the village too For the sake of development if you take our house and farmland and force us to live next to the metro car shed then it is an injustice to us and our neighbourhoodrdquo Patil addedThe projectMetro line 9 is an extension of line 7 from Andheri to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport CSMIA and Dahisar to MiraBhayander It is 13581km long 11386 km elevated and 2195 km underground with 10 stationsIt shall provide interconnectivity among the existing Western Express Highway Western Railway ongoing Metro Line 2A Dahisar to DN Nagar and Metro Line 7 Andheri East to Dahisar EastA maintenance depot has been proposed at MiraBhayander main depot for entire line7 It shall reduce the current travel time by anything between 50 per cent and 75 per cent depending on road conditions329No of farmers who may get affected due to the proposed car depot as per locals