Ghatkopar residents to march against metro realignment

The realignment will create traffic problems for us on the 90 feet road. The width of the road will get narrower if Metro comes on it, says Kalpesh Ashar The realignment will create traffic

problems on the 90 feet road, claim residents Residents of Ghatkopar are going to conduct a peaceful march on Sunday against the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) over

realignment of Wadala-Thane Metro-4 corridor that passes via 90 feet road in Ghatkopar east. The residents have demanded that alignment of Metro-4 be diverted to Eastern Express Highway

(EEH) instead of going via 90 feet road in Ghatkopar east. "The realignment will create traffic problems for us on the 90 feet road. The width of the road will get narrower if Metro

comes on it," said Kalpesh Ashar a resident of Ghatkopar. "We came to know about the realignment when they started barricading for it at some places. Hence, we are going to have a

peaceful march over the demand on Sunday," Ashar added. Earlier, former Congress Corporator Pravin Chedda had also demanded that the alignment of Metro-4 should be changed via EEH and

it should not enter Ghatkopar. Meanwhile, MMRDA officials have denied any change in the alignment of Metro-4. MMRDA also claimed that a public hearing was also conducted before the

construction for the Metro corridor started. An MMRDA official said, "The contract for civil construction has already been awarded and alignment cannot be changed now, and we need to go

inside Ghatkopar considering connectivity via public transport is more important when it comes to the planning of Metro." The Wadala-Thane 32-km-long Metro-4 corridor is one of the

longest corridors in the city that will have 32 Metro stations and is going to be extended till Ghodbunder on the northern end and up to CST on the southern end. The total cost of Metro-4 is

around Rs 14,000 crore for which companies like Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Projects and an Italian and Chinese company is involved. THE DEMANDS The residents have demanded that alignment

of Metro-4 should be diverted to Eastern Express Highway instead of going via 90 feet road in Ghatkopar east