The Maharashtra government on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that the Mumbai suburban district collector has withdrawn the order which allotted land at Kanjurmarg to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for construction of an integrated car shed for the Metro line project. The order dated October 1, 2020 had allotted a 102-acre land at Kanjurmarg for the metro project.
After the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government came to power, the collector issued an order in 2020 handing over the possession of the land to MMRDA for construction of the car shed after moving it out of the green zone Aarey. Soon after, the Union government approached the high court saying that the land belonged to the Salt Department of Union and the metro car shed cannot be constructed on the land.
Another private person, Mahesh Garodia, claiming ownership of the land in question had also approached the high court.
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Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni on Tuesday told the bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik that he had received a communication from the Collector that the order of October 1, 2020 now stands withdrawn.
The bench accepted the Maharashtra government's statement and said, in view of the same, the petition of the Union government is disposed of. "In view of the withdrawal of the impugned order of October 1, 2020, nothing survives in the petition (of the Centre). If any action was taken by the MMRDA pursuant to the order on October 1, 2020, then the MMRDA shall forthwith hand back possession of the land," the court said.
Advocate Saket Mone, appearing for the MMRDA, told the court that since an interim stay was granted on the October 1, 2020 order by the high court earlier, no work towards construction of the car shed was carried out by the MMRDA.
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Before Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister, the Devendra Fadnavis-led government had ordered the construction of the car shed at Aarey. The Fadnavis government stated that the land at Kanjurmarg is under litigation and is not viable for the metro project.
However, with the change in government in 2019, it was decided to take the car shed project to Kanjurmarg. The Uddhav Thackeray-led government decided to construct an integrated metro car shed at Kanjurmarg for Metro lines 3, 4, 4A and 6, instead of constructing separate car sheds for them.
However, in June 2022, Thackeray stepped down as chief minister and the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government came to power. The new government ordered the car shed project to be moved back to Aarey. This was amongst the first few orders passed by the new government in its first cabinet on June 30.
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