dna exclusive: Land acquisition begins for 126 km Multi Modal Corridor

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has started the process of acquiring land for the Multi Modal Corridor. “The process has started to acquire land for the Multi Modal Corridor,” confirmed UPS Madan, chief, MMRDA.   

In order to implement this project, the state will have to acquire at least 1,250 hectares. The estimated cost for the acquisition has been pegged at Rs1,838 crore. The length of the corridor is 126km.  

The idea of a Multi Modal Corridor to connect Virar and Alibaug via Panvel had come up in a think tank meeting held in November 2008.     

Although the development authority was planning to commence the land procurement process in 2012, it got delayed. The process is expected to get completed by 2018.   “Till date, the MMRDA has not taken physical possession of any land for the project. But documentation work, such as identifying the plots along the alignment, issuing notification and approaching the state Urban Development Department with the plot numbers, has begun,” said an MMRDA official.  Out of the total land to be taken over, 170 hectares are covered by forest and 73 hectare by mangroves. A major portion of the land to be acquired is farmland.   

As per the present plan, the Rs12,975-crore Multi Modal Corridor will not be constructed right from Virar to Alibaug. In the first phase, a 79km route between Virar and Chirner (Rs9,326 crore) will be connected. The remaining 47km between Chirner and Alibaug (Rs3,649 crore) will be constructed at a later stage.

Bridging the gap
First phase : Virar - Chirner (Will cover Virar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Dombivli, Panvel and Uran)

Second phase: Chirner – Alibaug (Will cover Pen, Vadhkal, Thal and Alibaug)