Mid-day visits protesting villages to understand why farmers are reluctant to part with their land to make way for Dahisar-Mira Bhayandar line
Villagers have said the compensation will not be sufficient to buy another piece of land . Pic/ Nimesh Dave
While the Dahisar East to Mira-Bhayandar 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 livelihood.
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MMRDA needs around 90-100 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 Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation, has been identified for the same. However, as per MMRDA, the total land area proposed is 20.0 ha.
During a visit to the villages, mid-day saw banners and posters put up at various places opposing the MMRDA plan. Pic/Nimesh Dave
Recently mid-day visited these villages and found that many locals were against the setting up of car depot.
‘Farmers will have no land left’
BJP Corporator Vinod Mhatre said, “The 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 don’t want this project at the cost of displacement of our land.”
According 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 alignment.
The land in the three villages of Rai gaon, Morve and Murdha, which falls under the jurisdiction of Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation, has been identified for the project. Pic/Nimesh Dave
BJP Corporator Jayesh Bhoir said, “We 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 lands.”
Ramesh Patil, one of the villagers, said, “We 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 take.”
During our visit, we observed that there were banners and posters at various places opposing the MMRDA plan.
Kunal Patil, a resident of Rai village, said, “The 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 livelihoods.” Patil also said that compensation will not be sufficient to buy another land.
‘May cause noise and water pollution’
“My 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 this,” Patil said.
He further added, “Authorities 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 neighbourhood,” Patil added.
The project
Metro line 9 is an extension of line 7 from Andheri to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) and Dahisar to Mira-Bhayander. It is 13.581-km long (11.386 km elevated and 2.195 km underground) with 10 stations.
It 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 East).
A maintenance depot has been proposed at Mira-Bhayander (main depot for entire line-7). It shall reduce the current travel time by anything between 50 per cent and 75 per cent depending on road conditions.
329
No. of farmers who may get affected due to the proposed car depot, as per locals
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