After years of operating from a rented government building in Powai, Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU) Mumbai is set to begin construction of its long-awaited permanent campus in Goregaon’s Pahadi village. The foundation ceremony, scheduled this week, will mark a major milestone in the university’s nearly decade-long search for a home of its own.
Spread across 35 acres, the proposed site near Versova metro station was allocated to the university two years ago. The event will be attended by the Chief Justice of India, who serves as the university’s chancellor, along with the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court and senior leaders from the Maharashtra government. Officials confirmed that once construction begins, the project is expected to take around three to four years to complete. Finding suitable land within city limits has been one of the biggest challenges for the institution since its establishment in 2015. Earlier plans to develop a campus in Gorai were set aside in favour of a location closer to the Bombay High Court and the city’s legal district. University officials said that procedural delays—ranging from land transfer formalities to boundary marking and name registration on the property card—had slowed progress over the past few years.
While the announcement has been met with enthusiasm by students and faculty alike, environmental concerns are also being raised. A section of the site reportedly falls within a coastal regulation zone (CRZ), where permanent construction is prohibited. The university plans to build only within the permissible area, while keeping the ecologically sensitive sections untouched. However, environmental activists have voiced strong objections, arguing that the land forms part of a recognised wetland as per the National and State Wetland Atlas. In a recent letter addressed to the judiciary and the university administration, one activist urged the authorities to withdraw the construction proposal, citing the need to protect Mumbai’s diminishing wetlands that serve as natural flood buffers and biodiversity zones.
Urban planners suggest that the university’s expansion could be an opportunity to showcase sustainable campus development in the city’s western suburbs—an area facing rapid urbanisation and ecological stress. “If designed with low-impact architecture, rainwater harvesting and green mobility links, this project could become a model for climate-resilient education infrastructure,” said a senior urban development expert. As Mumbai continues to balance its academic growth with ecological preservation, the MNLU campus project stands at a critical intersection of progress and sustainability. The coming months will reveal whether this landmark development can reconcile both ambitions.
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