Development authority asks state to freeze Virar-Alibaug Corridor plan.

With land acquisition for the Virar-Alibaug Multi Modal corridor being a major challenge, the city’s development authority has now written to the state government asking it to freeze the right of way required for the project to ensure that there are no further changes in the alignment.

UPS Madan, metropolitan commissioner at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), said, 'We have recently written to the state government asking them to freeze the alignment. Without that, there are a lot of speculative transactions happening along the proposed alignment driving up the prices.'

Madan said that the MMRDA could not freeze the alignment earlier to start the land acquisition process as a part of the corridor passes through the Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area (NAINA), which the CIDCO plans to develop as a new city.

'We were waiting for CIDCO to finalise their development plan for NAINA so that we can plan the multi modal corridor accordingly. That has been done now,' Madan said. Earlier, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) had asked the MMRDA to alter the alignment of the Virar-Alibaug corridor to make way for a 'New Thane’ between Ghodbunder Road and Vasai creek.

However, Madan said that the corporation had not submitted any formal comprehensive proposal yet and now once the alignment is frozen, the TMC will have to plan its projects according to the proposed multi modal corridor.

The MMRDA needs to acquire 1,261 hectares of land for the project. While 170.2 hectares of this is forest land, 73 hectares is covered by mangroves and falls under the Coastal Regulation Zone. A substantial amount of this is covered by farmlands and the MMRDA is contemplating a land acquisition model whereby it makes land owners stakeholders in the project by giving them back developed land as compensation.
The project, expected to cost about Rs. 12,975 crore, will have dedicated bus lanes, Metro lines and express roads for motorists.

The project, which is likely to be implemented in phases, will connect major towns in the Mumbai metropolitan region such as Virar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Dombivali, Panvel, Uran, Pen, Vadhkhal, Thal and Alibaug. The MMRDA simultaneously is also planning establishment of growth centres and commercial hubs along the alignment.

THE INDIAN EXPRESS