Mumbai: According to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation’s (MMRC) website, there is no metro station coming up at Aarey Milk Colony, as the map displayed there does not show it. There has been a hullabaloo around the construction for a metro car shed and station inside the colony, for which the corporation had claimed to have received all the necessary permissions.
The matter came to be light after environmentalist Zoru Bathena filed a Right to Information (RTI) plea on December 9, seeking to know the total number, name and location of stations for the entire metro route. The RTI also sought information on the total number and location of trees that are proposed to be cut down and transplanted along the entire metro stretch. In its reply, the MMRC stated that the total number of trees cut along the entire metro route would be 118, with 120 more being transplanted in Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Kalbadevi, Girgaon and Grant Road areas. In reply to the query about the alignment plan of Metro III and the total number of stations with their names and locations, a reference link was given for a map in the MMRC website, but that has no mention of Aarey in the route.
“The metro department and tree authorities are being very secretive about the total number of trees that would be affected for the Mumbai metro. Nowhere is this information available in the public domain. It is my guess that over 10,000 trees are going to be affected, which is a huge number. The government is finding it easiest to cut trees for the metro, as it is the path of least resistance,” said Mr Bathena. He added, “If there is any building, slum or illegal temple in the way, people would surely object, but where can trees go and complain? I can understand some trees being affected, but this amounts to genocide of trees. Also, cutting trees in CST and replanting them in Aarey/Borivali National Park serves no purpose, according to me. Perhaps the concept of TDR is being used senselessly for trees too. This is a sad situation.”
When contacted, Ashwini Bhide, managing director, MMRC, “If the applicant is not satisfied with the reply, he should opt for a first appeal. I am not liable to respond to the media about this.”
