Land tranfer for Metro 7 gets Union Cabinet nod

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the transfer of 40 acres of land from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for the construction of the Metro car depot for Metro-7 corridor.

In lieu, MMRDA has agreed to compensate the AAI by handing over the plot at Gorai.

After almost two years of negotiations, the MMRDA and AAI, in April, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the transfer of the land to the MMRDA at Dahisar, which presently hosts AAI's high-frequency receiving station that enables uninterrupted communication for smooth movement of aircraft.

The construction of the 16.5-km of Metro-7 corridor is progressing rapidly and has moved into the second stage for which civil construction is to be completed in 2018 and make the corridor operational in 2019.

Initially, AAl will hand over at least 2,000 sq mts of land in Dahisar on temporary basis.

In a statement, issued on Wednesday, the cabinet said, "MMRDA will pay the difference in cost of land of 40 acres, as per the stamp duty ready reckoner rate based on 2016-17 arrived at Rs. 472.70 crore or as per the ready reckoner rate at the time of final handing over of land, whichever is higher."

Further, MMRDA will also hand over the land at Gorai only after levelling, grading and demarcating the boundary. MMRDA is also expected to hand over all the land documents, revenue maps of Gorai land duly mutated in the Records of Rights in AAI's name.