Relax CRZ norms for Metro-II car depots: MMRDA to Centre

After numerous delays in the construction of the city’s longest Metro corridor, running between Charkop and Mankhurd, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) seems to have finally woken up.

The authority has sent a strongly worded letter to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) asking it to relax stringent coastal regulation zone (CRZ) norms for car depots of the 32km-long metro.

Recently, Mumbai Metro Transport Pvt Ltd (MMTPL) — the Reliance Infrastructure-led consortium constructing the Charkop-Mankhurd metro — had written a 13-page letter to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan listing its complaints on pending clearances for the second metro in the city.

The consortium’s major cause of concern was the green nod needed for the depots of the metro in Charkop and Mankhurd.

“As long as we do not get the green nod from the MoEF, we cannot start construction since this land has to be used as our casting yard for the project,” said the letter signed by Anil Gupta, head of R-Infra.

Following this development, MMRDA metropolitan commissioner Rahul Asthana has now written to the MoEF demanding that certain stringent conditions put forth by the expert appraisal committee of the MoEF be relaxed.

“The MMRDA is willing to accept all conditions in public interest, barring two, which will make it impossible for the project to go ahead. One of them is to construct the car depot on stilts and the other is not to carry out any maintenance activity inside the CRZ-restricted area. While the former condition makes the project expensive by a few hundred crores, the second condition is a deal breaker. It is not possible to shift these activities outside the CRZ area,” said the letter addressed to MoEF secretary Dr Tishya Chatterjee, a copy of which is with DNA.

The letter further assures the MoEF that the metro car shed will not be undertaken in CRZ-I land and there will be no construction activity in the intertidal area.

Asthana has, however, taken a softer stand on construction on stilts, saying that it will be done only “if unavoidable”.