Kanjurmarg land land not enough for two or more Metro lines, says Kirit Somaiya

The row over the Metro3 car shed issue does not seem to be ending with BJP leader Kirit Somaiya claiming that the MMRDA responding to his RTI query has said that the Kanjurmarg land is not feasible to be used for more than one Metro lineSomaiya had filed an RTI query with Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA on July 4 and the response came on July 7 The leader on Tuesday tweeted ldquoKanjur Car Shed not feasible to be used by more than ONE Metro Line MMRDArsquos consultant SYSTRA ContractorConsultant DMRC Delhi Metro MMRDA Govt of India in its meetings reports of 2021 stated shifting of Aarey Car Shed is disastrous decision sicrdquo The post also had a photo of a letter written by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to the chief secretary of Maharashtra on March 17 2022On April 8 midday had reported that the Centre had asked the state government to reconsider shifting the car shed to Aarey Milk Colony The Centre had said there would be a lot of operational and maintenance constraints with the plans of a common depot for 2 or more lines at Kanjurmarg pointing to observations made by DMRC amp Ms SYSTRA the consultant of MMRDAThe previous BJPSena government in Maharashtra had chosen Aarey as the car shed site but it was scrapped after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray became the CM The new government has once again said that they will be constructing the car depot at AareyThe letter from the Union ministry stated ldquoPlease refer to the meeting convened on the behalf of MoHUA on 23092021 between secretary MoHUA and chief secretary of Maharashtra to discuss the Aarey depot issue which is seriously hampering the progress of Metro line 3 project During meeting operational difficulties that would arise in line 3 besides other financial and legal issues were raised It was decided that DMRC amp Ms SYSTRA the consultant of MMRDA would hold a meeting to sort out technical issues that may arise in case of shifting of depot to KanjurmargrdquoIt added that DMRC submitted its report on February 11 wherein it is mentioned that both DMRC and Ms SYSTRA agree that there are inherited operational and maintenance constraints with the plans of a common depot for two or more lines at KanjurmargldquoDMRC has recorded their own experience that including trains from the depot consistently at a frequency of 4 minutes continuously for 3 or more hours is a challenging task There is a compromised time of maintenance window due to running of line 3 trains for 75 km on Line 6 network up to Kanjurmarg This will also have an adverse impact on restoration time in the event of failure of line 3 trains during regular operation periodrdquo the report statedActivist SpeakResponding to Somaiyarsquos tweet Aarey Conservation Group through its twitter handle tweeted ldquoSo now the central govt has no problem in building a depot in Kanjur After claiming Kanjur isrsquont feasible at all turns out it is not feasible ONLY FOR METRO 3 Sir if the problem is in the name just change name of Metro 3 to Extended Line 6 You are experts in changing names sicrdquoAshwini Bhide returns to MMRCLThe Maharashtra government on Tuesday gave IAS Officer Ashwini Bhide additional charge as managing director of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited MMRCLBhide is currently posted as additional commissioner at the Brihanmumbai Municipal CorporationIAS officer Ashwini Bhide is currently posted as additional BMC commissioner File picIn January 2020 the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had transferred Bhide who was working as MMRCL MD It is said that the decision was taken over the controversy over trees cut at the car shed site in Aarey Milk Colony Deputed by Fadnavis during his tenure Bhide had pushed the Metro car shed project hard and locked horns with Aaditya Thackeray over the protests They fought a prolonged war on Twitter when he jumped the wagon of environmentalists and took up the cause after becoming the environment minister Then the car depot site was shifted and Bhide after a brief insignificant stint was appointed as additional BMC commissionerTweet talkKirit Somaiya BJP leaderlsquoKanjur Car Shed not feasible to be used by more than ONE Metro Line MMRDArsquos consultant SYSTRA ContractorConsultant DMRC Delhi Metro MMRDA Govt of India in its meetings reports of 2021 stated shifting of Aarey Car Shed is disastrous decisionrsquo17 MarchDay when the Union ministry sent the letter