MUMBAI, May 2 -- The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation's (MSRDC) aspiration to acquire several hectares of privately owned land parcels for afforestation across the state has drawn criticism from Shiv Sena (UBT) -- one of the partners in the opposition Maharsahtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) -- with its leader and MP Sanjay Raut questioning the agency about handing over a large government-owned plot to the Adani Group in February 2024 for redevelopment. Raut shared a copy of MSRDC's recent advertisement in a post on X on Friday, and wrote: "Jai Maharashtra! Today is Maharashtra Day! What a strange coincidence-what you'd call sheer irony. MSRDC reclaimed 57 acres of land from the sea for the Sea Link project (MSRDC and urban development are under deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde's purview). This land was meant to be developed as a green area. Now, the same "green" land has reportedly been generously handed over to Gautam Adani for real estate development! And at the same time, MSRDC is planning to purchase private land to create new green spaces. So they sold their own green land, and now they want to buy someone else's land to make it green? Does the state government think the public is foolish?" MSRDC had floated an expression of interest to purchase private land across Maharashtra for compensatory afforestation earlier this week. An MSRDC official said that the land acquisition will be done "on direct purchase basis". With multiple expressway projects in the pipeline, it falls upon MSRDC to secure approvals from various government departments such as environment, forest, wildlife boards, CRZ etc. A key requirement for projects to be green-lit is disclosure of land for compensatory afforestation, prompting the agency to actively scout for suitable land parcels. A crucial criteria is that land available in Maharashtra must be of minimum five hectares at a single location, suitable for compensatory afforestation which would be handed over to the forest department. The private owner's land title should be clear and marketable. The expression of interest (EOI) document also mentions that the land must be free from all encumbrances, charges, mortgages, claims, etc. In case of ancestral lands offered, a no objection for sale of the plot from all the persons appearing on the 7/12 extracts is required to be submitted to the MSRDC. HT's attempts to reach the MSRDC spokesperson were in vain. In February 2024, Adani Realty emerged as the highest bidder for the redevelopment of a 24.2 acre plot at Bandra Reclamation, beating Larsen & Toubro. The land parcel has a potential development area of 45 lakh square feet and is valued at approximately Rs.30,000 crore....