Key Points :
- The metro car shed will be finally shifted to Kanjurmarg with no cost incurred.
- Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, Mr Uddhav Thackeray announced the news while addressing the media.
- The land on which this project will be shifted , will be available at zero rate , as assured by Uddhav Thackeray.
The recent metro car shed project will be shifted to the government land in Kanjurmarg and no cost will be incurred for the purpose.
Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra’s Chief Minister has announced that the metro car shed project will be shifted from Aarey Colony to Kanjurmarg in Mumbai.
Addressing the media, Mr. Thackeray said, “I am happy to announce that Metro 3 car shed will now be made at Kanjurmarg instead of Aarey.”
Thackeray also said in a webcast that the project will be shifted to government land in Kanjurmarg and no cost will be incurred for the purpose. “The land will be available at zero rate,” he said.
He said the building which has been built in Aarey forest will be utilised for some other public purpose. “About Rs 100 crore expenditure was incurred for the purpose and it won’t go waste,” he said.
Thackeray added that the government had earlier declared 600 acre of Aarey land as forest but now it has been revised to 800 acre. There will be no infringement on rights of tribals in the Aarey forest, he added.
“Biodiversity in Aarey needs to be conserved and protected. Nowhere is there an 800-acre jungle in an urban setup. Mumbai has a natural forest cover,” he said concluding it.
He also mentioned that the cases last year against citizens and environmentalists who protested against the Aarey project and felling of trees in that area have been withdrawn lawfully . He announced this on September 30 to the State’s Home Department to start the process to withdraw charges against all those who protested against the felling of trees in Aarey Colony last year.
Soon after taking oath for being the Chief minister, Thackeray announced a stay on construction of metro car shed in the city’s Aarey Colony: The Green Lung.
This project of Metro Car Shed in Aarey had already faced obstacles and was at the centre of controversy due to the high number of trees that were needed to be cut with environmentalists in the past mounting several legal challenges to stall the construction.
According to the record 29 people had been arrested on October 5, 2019, following clashes between Mumbai Police officers and the protesters on road who wanted to stop the felling of trees in Aarey Colony to build a metro car shed. The directive comes following a request made by Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray at the state cabinet meeting held on September 30. His request was backed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar among other members.
Thackeray had declared on September 2 ,
that 600 acres of the verdant Aarey Milk Colony in the north of Mumbai would be a “reserved forest”, and directed his officers to find alternative sites for the controversial car shed of Mumbai Metro 3 line.
The Aarey forest has approximately 5 lakh trees and is located adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
