Mumbai: Ahead of the crucial BMC elections, there is likely a face-off between the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the Shinde Fadnavis government over the chance in the use of 14.5 acre Worli Dairy land from marine search institute, aquarium, urban forest and exhibition centre to ‘’other purposes.’’ The part of the land to be used for the government offices.
Former minister Aaditya Thackeray suspects change in the use of the land. ‘’I’m told that a committee has been formed consisting of a few ministers to change the use of Worli Dairy from aquarium, open space & urban forest, as proposed by us, to “other purposes”.
No comments by Shinde Fadnavis govt
This illegal Govt will probably auction it for commercial or builder interests. The unconstitutional govt must come clean on this. It cannot sell Mumbai for its selfish interests. We need open spaces and tourist places,’’ he claimed.
Despite repeated attempts, there was no response from the state government in this regard. The urban development or animal husbandry and dairy development department officers expressed their inability to share the government resolution in this regard.
The issue is important as the MVA government in September 2021 had proposed to change the land reservation at Worli dairy for aquarium, urban forest and exhibition centre on 11 acres of the total 14.5 acre land. The MVA government had thought of handing over the land to the BMC for tourism development. Incidentally, the land falls in the constituency of Mr Aaditya Thackeray who was quite aggressive in pursuing its use for an aquarium, urban forest and exhibition centre in a bid to attract tourists there.
Incidentally, BMC in February this year had received over 300 objections to the Worli Dairy aquarium plan. The objections were mainly related to workers’ employment, building safety and hike in the rates of milk.