Cabinet greenlights massive infrastructure projects ahead of Assembly election
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. FILE PIC
The state cabinet on Monday approved an Rs 18,800 crore plan for the Borivli-Thane six-lane underground road and sanctioned a loan without interest to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for the underground connection between Orange Gate and Marine Drive. It also decided to sublease salt pan lands to the Dharavi redevelopment project's special purpose vehicle for housing. These were some of the 38 decisions that the cabinet took on Monday ahead of the Assembly elections. A couple of more cabinet meetings are expected to be held before the election code of conduct comes into force in early October.
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The MMRDA has been tasked with constructing the 11.85-km Borivli-Thane underground road. The agency’s underground project in South Mumbai needs Rs 9,158 crore of which Rs 1,354 crore will be availed from the government as a secondary loan. Thane’s ring Metro line project’s revised proposal was approved on Monday. The project's revised cost will be Rs 12,220 crore. This will be a 29 km line with 20 elevated and two underground stations.
Salt pan land
The state cabinet decided to lease the Centre-owned salt pan lands measuring 255 acres for housing the Dharavi project-affected people, economically weaker sections, and others. As decided by the Union government, the Centre will transfer the land to the state for 99 years.
The housing secretary has been empowered to execute a lease deal with the Centre for the land at Kanjur Marg, Bhandup and Mulund. The state will sublease the land and recover the cost of land acquisition from a special purpose vehicle for Dharavi's redevelopment, which will also pay for rehabilitating the salt pan workers.
“It will be the Dharavi Redevelopment Project's responsibility to ensure that the land is used for rental housing (for ineligible PAP in the Dharavi rehab scheme), the slum rehabilitation projects, affordable housing, and for the EWS,” the CMO stated in a release.
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