Alibaug Virar Corridor Villages List

[Brook Mithani]

TheMaharashtra Legislature on June 20 gave its approval for the inclusion of six new municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The districts, including Panvel, Raigad, Vasai, Alibaug, Khalapur, Pen and Palghar. With this, over 2,000 square kilometre (sq km) of land would be added to the existing 4,355 sq km area that falls under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). However, the expansion of the MMRDA jurisdiction will not affect the powers of local gram panchayats, Municipal Councils and Municipal Corporations, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

The MMR was first notified in 1967 with an area of 3,965 sq km while the MMRDA was set up in 1974 as the administrative body for planning and coordination of development work in the region. Now, the MMR consists of eight municipal corporations (Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi- Nizamapur, Vasai-Virar and Mira-Bhayandar) and nine municipal councils (Ambarnath, Kulgaon-Badlapur, Matheran, Karjat, Panvel, Khopoli, Pen, Uran, and Alibaug), along with more than 1,000 villages in Thane and Raigad districts.

The move is aimed at providing a holistic development and planning of these satellite towns. As the rising population in and around Mumbai is saturating the available resources, many people are now moving to these satellite towns for easier access to resources such as housing. With this move, the MMRDA will be able to execute development plans in these localities now.

According to an MMRDA official, there are a number of infrastructure projects that are being executed in these satellite towns that called for an expansion of the area under the MMRDA. These projects include the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi highway, Mumbai-Surat expressway, Navi Mumbai international airport, Palghar district commercial centre, Mumbai-Porbandar project, the Virar-Alibaug multimodal corridor, and various Metro rail projects, among others.

The expansion of the MMR also means that the real estate in the newly added areas would witness a growth. The developers would be more willing to invest in projects here. For homebuyers, more options would be available at prices way less than what they would have paid in Mumbai or Navi Mumbai.

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We are reeling under the impact of climate change. We struggle to breathe clear air and dust particles from construction sites have caused chronic respiratory illnesses. The heat wave has been exhausting and at least 13 people in Maharashtra died due to heat stroke in April. For scores of citizens, travelling to their workplaces is daily torture.

Citizens are experiencing the ugly impact of the cutting down of hundreds of trees and forests for infrastructure projects, the displacing of scores of people and the destruction of traditional vocations and livelihood patterns in the name of development. These rampant destructive spate of activities do not align with the objectives of protecting and nurturing the environment and protecting the lives and livelihood of people.

The refinery, an over Rs three lakh crore project, is a joint venture of Saudi Aramco, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited. In 2015, the project was proposed to be located in 17 villages in Rajapur taluka and Sindhudurg district but after stiff resistance from local villagers, it was shifted 20 kilometres from Nanar to Barsu-Solgaon in 2019.

The cynicism of planners in exploiting the natural resources of the area is obvious: Over 200 people, including government officials, journalists and others who had advance information on the refinery project, purchased land at cheap rates between 2019 and 2022!

Environmental activists have been arrested, face externment notices or threats to life. On February 7, 2023, Sashikant Warishe, a reporter with Mahanagari Times, was callously and deliberately mowed down by a land broker Pandharinath Amberkar. Warishe used to write on the irregularities in land acquisition and the adverse impact of the refinery. At least 45 women were detained (and arrested ?) when they protested the land surveys being conducted in the area.

Besides rice fields, the world famous Alphonso mango and cashew orchards, Barsu Solgaon has Mesolithic Age geoglyphs, depicting animals like the one-horned rhino, the tiger, and the elephant, which were perhaps found in this region thousands of years ago. In fact, the largest geoglyph in the Konkan, at least 57 feet wide by 17 feet high, is in Barsu.

Beside the threat to these ancient relics of human settlements, the villagers fear the destruction of natural resources, nature-based livelihoods and a rich cultural heritage and environment. Besides, the refinery will also result in disruption of fishing activities, with the setting up of a number of downstream petrochemical industries and a port at Ambolgan village around 24 km from Barsu, for unloading crude oil.

For several years now, farmers of Roha, Murud and Pen taluks of Raigad district have been struggling against mega projects that are set to transform the entire area. Currently, land acquisition, a majority of which is compulsory, is on at breakneck speed for several projects, including the JSW Dharamtar Port Ltd (JSWDPL) expansion, the Virar Alibag multimodal corridor, the Pharma park, the Navi Mumbai airport and the Sambarkund Dam project. A huge paper pulp industry is coming up at Shahapur Dherand in Alibag tahsil.

In the last two decades, due to mega projects, there has been the conversion of one lakh acres agricultural land to non-agricultural (NA) land and another 60,000 acres are about to be converted to NA land.

This is serious as it affects the environment at large, besides the livelihood of farmers. Local farmers are against these projects and have, time and again, outlined their detailed reasons why they oppose them. But their voices have fallen on deaf ears.

According to the official data, over the last 20 years, there has been a decrease in the area under paddy cultivation in Raigad district by 39,264 hectares i.e. 98,160 acres, due to urbanization and other projects. Also, with the land acquisition and land use conversion that is going on in the district, at least 52,062 acres of land is being diverted from agriculture to other purposes in a single year.

This is a huge loss of jobs, livelihoods, and the environment. Compared to that, new job creation is not seen. The carrot of employment generation is shown in every project prior to land acquisition but in reality it does not happen. Hence, the rate of migration is increasing.

According to Section 10 of the Land Acquisition Act (2013), the area under acquisition in districts should not be beyond certain limits. But this issue is not taken into consideration while issuing the acquisition notification. The government is working towards erasing the identity of Raigad district as a rice granary and is eliminating the peasantry here.

Land acquisition is a violation of Section 10 of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. The said acquisition should be done in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act 2013, by which the project affected have the right to reject the project. But the government has surreptitiously tweaked the law in 2018. This is tyranny.

Over the last few years, the Bullet Train Project, the Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway and the Delhi-Mumbai Freight Corridor (DDFC) have sliced up the district, destroying forests, fruit orchards and farmlands, reducing the predominantly tribal farmers to precarity and endangering their livelihood and culture.

The Expressway has already caused irreparable damage to the forests and hillsides which have been cut away. But there will be far more damage due to the construction of a 25 feet high embankment on which the Highway will run. This will have a lasting impact on the ecosystem and environment in the region. Soil for the construction of the DDFC and the embankment for the Expressway is being sourced by unscrupulous contractors from the agricultural lands of tribals and the hillsides in tribal villages, causing irreparable environmental damage. Further, the proposed Vadhvan Port will be constructed on 4,000 acres of land that is to be reclaimed land offshore near Dahanu.

Various hillsides in Palghar taluka have been earmarked for sourcing the stone, rock and earth for the reclamation. This will destroy and change the geography and environment of the area permanently. Additionally, the 4000 acres of land to be reclaimed in the sea will push the sea waters into the coastal villages and will cause severe flooding of the coastal area, which anyway will have to deal with the rising sea-levels due to global warming.

The Coastal Road and the proposed Vadhvan Port, the largest Port in the Asian continent will destroy the livelihood of the fishing communities. The site of the proposed port is rich in marine diversity and is one of the few breeding grounds for ghol and other varieties of fish. The quality of bombil that is caught in this area is exceptional.

Vadhwan also has very strong cultural significance for some communities as the Port will encompass the Shankodar temple which is believed to be the place where Lord Rama performed the last rites of his father.

The fishing community will also be impacted; thousands of Adivasi fishworkers will also lose their employment. Orchards which produce vegetable and fruit for the Mumbai and overseas market will be destroyed. The local die-making industry which provides self-employment to almost every household in the area will be overrun by the port activities. The alternative employment that the mechanised and ultra-modern port will offer will be far less than the existing employments and livelihoods that will be destroyed.

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