Construction of Metro Car Shed in Aarey Bad for Environment?
People in Mumbai are protesting over the construction of Metro Car shed in the Aarey forest area, However it might eventually help the environment as suggested by the government officials.
In 2019, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devndra Fadnavis passed out an order to construct a car shed for Mumbai Metros,at the Aarey colony in Mumbai. However, soon after this decision was taken by the Maharashtra government, several celebrities, activists and common people started to protest against the deforestation which will take place because of the metro car shed project which is proposed in the Aarey Forest. Later, Devendra Fadnavis’s BJP failed to form the government in Maharashtra, and the post of Chief Minister was taken over by Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray. Soon after, Thackeray took over as the Chief Minister, because of the ongoing protest he relocated the Mumbai metro car shed project to a plot in Kanjurmarg, which saved the Aarey forest area from getting affected.
The matter was silenced, until now when the Uddhav Thackeray government lost its majority and Eknath Shinde took over as the Chief Minister with the support of BJP & Devendra Fadnavis became the Deputy Chief Minister. Soon after, taking the oath of deputy Chief Minister, he again ruled out Uddhav Thackeray’s order of shifting the metro car shed project to Kanjurmarg, and took it back to Aarey Colony. If experts and sources are to be believed, Devendra Fadnavis’s decision to take back the project to Aarey colony was his political ego which was earlier triggered by Uddhav Thackeray. However, after people started to protest against this decision, in a clarification Devendra Fadnavis has said that his decision is not a matter of political ego. He mentioned that, the plot in Kanjurmarg which was selected by Uddhav Thackeray is a marshy land which is not suitable for the metro car shed project. The government officials also mentioned that to fix the marshy land in the Kanjurmarg plot, it would approximately take 2 years and the cost of the project will also increase significantly. Moreover the officials mentioned that they need just a small piece of “Aarey land” and in place of the 350 trees which will be chopped the government has planned to plant 1000 trees to compensate for the loss of the environment. Also an image has surfaced online in which it is clearly seen that a very very small piece of forest land will be used in the construction of the metro car shed. The car shed which is about to be constructed requires an even smaller area than that of the IIT Bombay campus, Renaissance Hotel, & the Royal Palm society which are within and adjacent to Aarey. The officials also mentioned that the construction of the metro car shed in the Aarey forest area would actually benefit the environment by reducing the use of vehicles which run on fossil fuels and emit carbon in the atmosphere, they also mentioned benefits like reduced traffic, better public transport and people’s convenience.
Now, listening to the other side of the story, suggests that the construction of the metro car shed in the Aarey might eventually help the environment and that the decision was not a matter of political ego.
