Bombay High Court: We can't decide whether Metro should be underground

Mumbai Metro/ File Pic

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that it is unable to decide whether the proposed Metro II-B line connecting the western and eastern suburbs of the metropolios should be above the ground or underground. The Court also sought the city planning body MMRDA to examine the issue within ten days.

A division bench of Justices A S Oka and Riyaz Chagla gave the direction on a plea by the H-West Ward Citizens Trust, which had moved the high court in January, claiming that the Dahisar-Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd Metro line (Metro II-B), which is to run above the ground, would be unsafe.

The Metro III line connecting South Mumbai to the western suburbs is fully underground and the same model should be followed for Metro II-B too, it had said.

The court had then asked the petitioner to make a representation to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the nodal agency for executing Metro project in Mumbai. The bench asked MMRDA to examine the issue within ten days after the counsel for the citizens' trust submitted to the court that it had made the representation on March 8, but there has been no response on it as yet.

MMRDA counsel Kiran Bagalia said a reply would be sent to the petitioner within ten days. Accepting the statement, Justice Oka said, "We cannot go into the issue of whether the line should be underground or above the ground."

The court asked the MMRDA to decide on the representation and give its reply to the trust within ten days.

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Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from PTI