Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde hailed the Bombay High Court’s decision to lift a stay on the transfer of part of Thane Mental Hospital’s land for the construction of a Railway station. He said that the new facility will reduce the burden of commuter footfall at Thane and Mulund stations. The High Court on Friday allowed the transfer of the hospital’s more than 14 acres of land, out of its total land of 72 acres, for the new railway station. A new station will come up on this land belonging to the Maharashtra government’s health department.
Decongesting Thane and Mulund stations
“Once this station is built, the commuter footfall at Thane station will reduce by 31 per cent and Mulund station by 21 per cent,” Shinde said in an official statement. At present, 7.50 lakh people use Thane railway station for commuting daily, the CM added. He said that due to the persistent efforts by Shiv Sena’s elected representatives, the railway administration approved the plans of the new railway station. “The court’s decision underlines once again that the judiciary always takes a positive stance when it comes to the larger public interest and creation of ground infrastructure facilities,” he further said. According to a PTI report, funds of Rs 289 crore were allocated for the project under the Thane Municipal Corporation’s Smart City scheme.
The HC also directed that adequate care be taken so that the female wards of the mental hospital were not impacted and alternative rehabilitation arrangements were made before the land transfer. According to HT, state advocate-general Virendra Saraf, government counsels P Kakade and Nisha Mehra represented the state. Senior counsel RS Apte and Mandar Limaye appeared for the Thane municipal corporation during the hearings.
