Mumbai: Authorities struggle to acquire forest and private land for new corridor connecting Panvel to Karjat

Mumbai's new corridor connecting Panvel with Karjat is strutting forward with 74 percent of land available. However out of the 26 percent of unavailable land, the authorities are struggling to acquire forest land and parts of private land. This comes at a time when Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation is called tenders for 3.12 kms of tunnel on this 29.6 kms long new rail corridor worth Rs 2812 crore.

As per the data provided to Free Press Journal, there is a need for acquiring 135.89 hectares of land for this corridor connecting Navi Mumbai with Raigad district; which will prove to be game changer for the development of Mumbai's Metropolitan Region. Out of this they have acquired 101.09 hectares of land and 34.80 hectares is pending.

Sources said that they need close to 4.91 hectares of forest land and they have not managed to acquire any yet. Moreover they need 56.40 hectares of private land of which they have yet to acquire 29.18 hectares of private land. They have already acquired of 100 percent of railway land of 70.18 hectares and 84 percent of government land out of the total 4.40 hectares.

It has been more than four years since this multi crore new suburban rail line got approved in January 2018 but since then it has been moving at a slow pace. "Target for completion of this new corridor is December 2024. Tenders for earthwork and minor bridges has been awarded. Progress for about a year had suffered badly due to Covid related restrictions. However, now the work is in full swing," explained an official from MRVC.

The engineering scale plan of 4 stations out of 5, have been approved which are namely Mohope, Chowk, Karjat and Chikhale stations. Meanwhile the plan for Panvel has been revised and is under approval.

The MRVC authorities will be constructing three tunnels, which incidentally will be the first suburban rail line in Mumbai, that shall have ballast less tracks.

The longest bridge will be more than 2.6 kms while other two will be less than 250 meters. At present, a single line connects Panvel with Karjat traversing through the taluks of Panvel, Khalapur and Karjat and caters to Goods and long distance passenger trains. The suburban corridor will have five stations of Panvel, Chikale, Mohape, Chowk and Karjat and will pass through 58 bridges. This is part of Rs 10,947 crore worth Mumbai Urban Transport Project-3.

Published on: Monday, March 14, 2022, 07:00 AM IST