Mumbai: Cuffe Parade residents oppose Metro III work.

Residents of Cuffe Parade in South Mumbai have approached the Bombay High Court against the Metro III (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ line) work in their area complaining that it is being carried out without the issuance of legal notices and acquisition of land, roads and passages.

Three petitioners filed a writ petition stating MMRCL (Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited) contractors have begun work on various roads, parks and playgrounds in their area and have acted in an illegal, arbitrary and high-handed manner, which has caused hardships as they were not informed by the central or the state government.

In another hurdle for the Metro III project, the car shed which is being constructed at Aarey Colony was initially proposed to be constructed at Kanjurmarg and the reason for the shift is unknown. The government of Maharashtra had proposed in October 2015 to construct the car shed at Kanjurmarg as it would lead to less number of trees being cut.

The state government had also directed MMRC (Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation) to construct a small facility at Aarey Colony as a backup option which would affect a minimum of 500 trees. But if the land at Kanjurmarg was not available, then a double-decked depot at Aarey would be constructed and the cost of this project would be Rs. 750 crore, as per the state government’s proposal.

Zoru Bhathena, an activist said, “The work of the car shed is going on at Aarey as the land at Kanjurmarg has not been acquired and the Urban Development Department (UDD) is clueless about the reason for the shift. Why is the car shed not being constructed at Kanjurmarg? It would affect less than 500 trees at Kanjurmarg but at Aarey over 2,298 trees will be affected.”

R Ramana, executive director of Planning of MMRCL, told the Free Press Journal, “The land at Kanjurmarg was not issued for the car depot by the state government because some legal issue of the land was unresolved. Therefore, we moved to the backup option for constructing the carshed in Aarey.”

The state government had also directed the MMRC to maintain the trees that will be transplanted for five years. But Ramana had recently informed the Free Press Journal that once the trees are transplanted, they would take care of the trees and see to it that they survive for two seasons.

FREE PRESS JOURNAL