The Bombay High Court on Wednesday stayed an order for the Metro car shed project at Mumbai’s Kanjur Marg. The order, passed by Mumbai suburban district collector, allocated 102 acre of salt pan land in the Kanjur Marg area of the city for the construction of an integrated Metro car shed. 

The High Court has asked Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMDRA) to maintain the status quo and restrained the authorities from carrying out any construction work at the said land. 

The Maharashtra government is ready to take back its order, which was passed on October 15, 2020, of land allotment to MMDRA for the Metro car shed project at Kanjur Marg, reports ANI. 

This comes as the Central Government and the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government in the state over the ownership of the land earmarked by the state for constructing the car depot which was earlier planned at Aarey Colony, a green belt in suburban Goregaon, reports PTI. 

The Centre had filed a petition in the Bombay HC challenging the collector’s order over allocating the land for the construction of the car shed saying that land belongs to its salt department. 

“We cannot allow the collector’s order of October 1, 2020 to continue. The order has to go. We are admitting the petition and granting relief as sought by the petitioner (Union government) in prayer clauses ‘h’ and ‘I’,” the court said.

As per prayer clause ‘h’, the Union government had sought the court to stay operation of the collectors order of October 1, transferring possession of 102 acres of land to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for construction of an integrated car shed for a Metro lines.

In the prayer clause ‘I’, the Centre had sought an order from the court restraining the MMRDA from carrying out any construction work on the said land.

On Monday, the high court had suggested the state government to consider withdrawing the order passed by the collector.

The previous Maharashtra government led by BJP had decided to construct the car shed for the Mumbai Metro line 3 at Aarey Colony in the western suburbs, despite opposition from environmentalists and activists to the vast tree-cutting for the project.

The present Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government recently took a decision to shift the car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg.

It decided to construct an integrated car shed at Kanjurmarg for Metro lines 3, 4, 4A and 6, instead of constructing separate car sheds for these lines.