MRVC struggles to acquire part of land for Panvel-Karjat project

Mumbai's new corridor connecting Panvel with Karjat is moving ahead with 74 percent of the land available. However, the authorities are struggling to acquire the remaining 26 per cent of land which is forest and private land. This comes at a time when the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has invited 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 was a need for 135.89 hectares of land for the corridor connecting Navi Mumbai with Raigad district; that would be a game changer for the development of Mumbai's Metropolitan Region. Of this, the authorities have acquired 101.09 hectares of land while 34.80 hectares still needs to be acquired. Sources said, they need close to 4.91 hectares of forest land which they have not managed to acquire as yet. Moreover, they need 56.40 hectares of private land of which they have yet to acquire 29.18 hectares. They have already acquired 100 per cent of railway land of 70.18 hectares and 84 per cent of the government land of the total 4.40 hectares.

It has been over four years since the multi-crore new suburban rail line was approved in January 2018 but since then it has been moving at a snail's pace.

"Target for completion of the new corridor is December 2024. Tenders for earthwork and minor bridges have been awarded. Progress for about a year had suffered badly due to Covid restrictions. However, now the work is in full swing," said an official from MRVC.

The engineering scale plan of four stations out of five, have been approved, which include, Mohope, Chowk, Karjat and Chikhale. 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 of over 2.6 km while other two will be less than 250 meters. At present, a single line connects Panvel with Karjat traversing through the talukas 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.