New govt pushes for Metro 3 car shed in Aarey, bullet train

Mumbai/Delhi: Major infrastructure projects like the stalled Metro 3 car shed at Aarey and Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train are expected to get a fillip with the change of guard in the state government.
At the very first cabinet meeting held by newly appointed chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the latter directed bureaucrats to inform the Bombay high court on Friday that the state government no longer requires the Kanjurmarg plot for the Metro car shed.It is considering constructing the car shed in Aarey Colony.
Fadnavis was then informed that the matter was adjourned and was not coming up on Friday. “It is very clear that work will begin on the Metro 3 car shed in Aarey Colony. Once the court is informed about the government not wanting the land for the car shed in Kanjurmarg, then only the private suit matter will continue,” said official sources.
Ironically, the very first decision that former CM Uddhav Thackeray took in November 2019 was to stay the construction of the car shed in Aarey. In 2020, he declared 800 acres of Aarey as a forest and later announced the shifting of the Metro 3 car shed to the 102-acre Kanjurmarg plot that had been earmarked for the Metro 6 car shed.
With the Maha Vikas Aghadi government looking for alternatives to the Kanjurmarg plot, then environment minister Aaditya Thackeray had announced that the 30-hectare Aarey plot would be handed over to the forest department for conservation.
Fadnavis as CM had promised the underground Metro 3 would be ready by 2019. The deadline was further pushed to 2022. However, the stalemate on the location of the Metro car shed as well as delay in construction of the underground tunnels has held up the project indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the new government in Maharashtra has also revived the hope of expediting the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail. So far, work has not started in the Maharashtra portion due to non-availability of sufficient land and forest clearances, whereas construction is in full swing on the stretch in Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Sources in the railway ministry said while work for the bullet train project is yet to start in Maharashtra, all civil and track contracts for construction and laying of tracks have been bid out for the entire 352km stretch falling under Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli sections of the project.