Land acquisition cost for Alibaug to Virar multi-modal corridor shoots to Rs 21,000 cr, total project cost also spirals over four-fold

The proposed corridor requires the land acquisition of around 1,347.22 hectares of which some of the areas are forests, while the major land parcel is owned by private parties.

An official from the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) told The Indian Express that the land acquisition cost of the project alone amounts to Rs 21,000 crore.

“Amid rising land prices in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) in recent times due to the upcoming infrastructure development projects, including the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link and the Metro corridor, the land acquisition cost recorded a big jump. The new land acquisition act and other government decisions also added to the increase in cost,” the official said.

The land acquisition will be done in three districts — Raigad, Thane, and Palghar — of which 61.29 hectares of land will be acquired in Palghar, 520.92 hectares in Thane, while about 765.01 hectares of land will be acquired in Raigad.

The MSRDC has been the project implementing authority since 2020. Earlier, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) was responsible for executing this project, but the MSRDC and the MMRDA swapped projects with the latter getting execution responsibility for the Thane-Borivali twin tunnel project.

Meanwhile, the MSRDC official said that they are in talks with the National highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is carrying out the Delhi-Vadodara highway project, for sharing the cost.

“The 98-km stretch of the corridor (from Navghar to Balavali) under alignment-1 of which over 18-km of elevated stretch (from Morbe to Karanjade) will pass beside the under-construction Delhi-Vadodara Highway. Therefore, we (MSRDC) are in talks with NHAI to share the cost of the land acquisition,” the official said.

The official stressed that they have put on priority the multi-modal corridor since the MSRDC’s ambitious expressway project ‘Samruddhi Mahamarg’ is in the final stage of completion.