MUMBAI (Metro Rail News): The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued a notification to remove 124 trees and transplant 53 others from Sariput Nagar in Aarey due to their hindrance of the shunting neck work for Metro Line 3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) by Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL).
The BMC has requested citizens to mail their suggestions/objections to the matter due to the COVID-19 pandemic, setting January 23 as the last date to do so and saying that any suggestion/objection would not be accepted after this.
A car shed for Metro Line 3 and generate revenue through commercialisation of the plot at Aarey. Devendra Fadnavis continued this. However, when Uddhav Thackeray became the Chief Minister, he chose to relocate the Metro 3 car shed to Kanjur Marg. However, when Fadnavis assumed the deputy chief minister role, he reversed this decision.
Environmentalists have accused Fadnavis of felling trees, and the deputy CM has accepted the authenticity of the environmentalists’ protests to a certain extent while noting that they may have been sponsored.
In 2019, when numerous court orders were rescinded, thousands of trees were cut down despite environmentalists’ opposition. During Uddhav Thackeray’s office, he resolved to turn 804 acres of Aarey into a reserve forest, as leopards and wildlife regularly migrated to the area from Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
