As per the detailed project report of the alignment, which has been prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the initial plan was to construct a car depot at Colaba.
The city’s third metro line by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is to come up between Colaba and Bandra, will in all likelihood have an underground car depot in the middle of its alignment. The plan is to construct a car depot under the stables of Mahalaxmi Race Course.
As per the detailed project report of the alignment, which has been prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the initial plan was to construct a car depot at Colaba. “We had identified certain spots in Colaba where we could construct a car depot.
They included slum areas of Ganesh Murti Nagar and Ambedkar Nagar. But, our consultants Louis Berger suggested that land acquisition in the densely populated Colaba area would be a difficult proposition. The slums have about 5,000 occupants and most of them would have asked for rehabilitation,” said MMRDA metropolitan commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad. “Since there is no provision for extra FSI in the area, such rehabilitation would have been very expensive for the authority. Hence, the plan has now been dropped.”
According to Gaikwad, as Colaba falls under the CRZ regulations, developing a car depot there would have been a tedious process. “The spots which were finalised by DMRC also needed some portion of the sea to be reclaimed. Since the CRZ norms are very stringent, the idea was dropped by the authority,” added Gaikwad.
About Mahalaxmi Race Course being used for setting up an underground car depot, Gaikwad said the authority was contemplating on a plan to construct the underground option causing minimum obstruction to the race course.
“Our consultants have suggested that technically, the method of cut and curve tunnels will be the best possible way to construct the underground car depot at the Mahalaxmi Race Course. The cut and curve technique does not require surface portion of the soil to be excavated. It will definitely ensure smooth functioning of the race course even during construction. Moreover, there will not be any dislocation of stables, which occupy the portion towards the Mahalaxmi station-end of the race course,” said Gaikwad.
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