Delay in Aarey Metro Project in Mumbai: Construction cost increased by about 10 thousand crores; Car shed will return to Aarey Colony

The construction matter of Mumbai Metro Carshed is in the news again. In the new Shinde government of Maharashtra, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed his intention to build a car shed inside Aarey Colony. Whereas the previous Uddhav Thackeray government had talked about building a car shed in Kanjurmarg. The delay in the project has increased the cost of construction by about Rs 10 thousand crore.

Fadnavis says that 25 percent of the construction work of the car shed in Aarey Colony has been completed. Out of Rs 400 crore, 100 crore has also been spent. Now if the metro carshed from Aarey is shifted to Kanjurmarg, the cost of the entire project will increase further. In fact, due to the felling of trees in the Aarey Metro Project in Mumbai, many organizations opposed its construction. There were also movements regarding this.

Fear of cutting 4 lakh trees, 76 species of birds in danger
Maharashtra’s environmental organizations allege that construction in Aarey will increase the risk to 4 lakh trees. There will be danger of harvesting on them in the coming time. There are 76 species of birds in the forest here. 80 species of butterflies, 16 mammals, leopards and 38 species of reptiles will also be threatened by the construction of Metro Carshed.

Despite protests, more than 250 trees were cut in Aarey
1641 trees have been approved for the Mumbai Metro-3 project. So far, 1,423 trees have been cut, but MMRC did not give information about the trees cut in Aarey. Stalin Dayanand of Vanshakti NGO alleges that about 250 trees were cut without permission despite strong protests from the local people.

Bollywood celebrities are running a campaign to save the forest
Bollywood celebrities have opposed the construction of a metro car shed in Aarey. In September 2019, Aarey Conservation Group’s ‘Save Aarey Campaign’ was supported on social media by celebrities including Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Raveena Tandon, Dia Mirza, Shraddha Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter, Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor among others.

Demand for construction of metro carshed in Kanjurmarg
Political parties like Shiv Sena, Congress and MNS, including organizations associated with environmental protection, say that instead of constructing the metro carshed in the forest of Aarey Colony, on government land in Kanjurmarg. During the Maha Aghadi government of Thackeray, the matter of car shed construction had gone into cold storage.