Keypoints:
- Environmentalists have objected to the clearance saying that the mangroves are being cut despite the adequate land availability.
- Mumbai Metro Line 4 from Wadala to Kasarvadavali is a 32-km-long elevated corridor with 32 stations.
Mangroves will be cut by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on a one hectare (ha) plot at Bhakti park in Wadala for the construction of an elevated 32 km long station.
“This is the only patch of mangroves on Metro Line 4 that we will be using. We have got permission from the Bombay High Court and all the other authorities. This plot does not have a dense mangrove cover. The forest department will also undertake compensatory afforestation,’’ MMRDA director (works) Pramod Ahuja said.
Virendra Tiwari, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (mangrove protection cell) said, “We will be doing compensatory afforestation in our drives later.”
However, environmentalists have raised objection to the clearance and have said that the mangroves are being cut despite adequate land availability for building the station.
“The non-mangrove wetland areas in the region were earlier handed over to private developers and now they are going after mangrove areas too. The BEST depot and truck terminal in Wadala have more than adequate space where a station can come up. This is completely unnecessary in our opinion,” environmentalist D Stalin of NGO Vanashakti said.
Zoru Bhathena, who is an activist has also raised a question to the MMRDA’s plan to cut the mangroves on the full one hectare plot, saying that cutting off mangroves where the piers were to be erected would have sufficed. “To cut trees on a one-hectare plot for an elevated station is completely wrong when only mangroves around the piers/pillars need to be cut. That will help save a large number of mangroves,” Bhathena said.
Mumbai metro line 4 extends from Wadala to Kasarvadavali and it is a 32-km-long elevated corridor with 32 stations. The cost of this project is Rs 14,500-crore and it is expected to provide interconnectivity among the existing Eastern Express Roadway, Central Railway, Monorail, and the ongoing Metro lines.
