Mumbai: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan on Tuesday lent his baritone to the chorus of voices lobbying for the metro as a faster, convenient and efficient mode of transport. He cited the example of his friend, who, during a medical emergency, used the metro instead of his car. His tweet also suggested that metro is the solution to pollution and asked his followers to grow more trees. He said he had already raised trees in his garden and asked Twitterati whether they had embarked on their green initiative.
"Friend of mine had a medical emergency, decided to take METRO instead of his car .. came back very impressed .. said was faster, convenient and most efficient .. " "Solution for Pollution .. "Grow more trees .. I did in my garden .. have you", tweeted Bachchan.
Interestingly, minutes after his tweet, several citizens responded, speaking about the benefits of the metro. But several others also tweeted about the importance of forests and questioned Bachchan's tweet. "METRO came to his house and picked him up? Or METRO dropped him at the casualty of the hospital?Kya Bachan saab....Kuch bhi....", wondered Gokulchan.
Other Tweeple talked about the controversial metro car shed in Aarey, which requires the felling of more than 2,000 trees. Tanmay VS tweeted, "Metro is super beneficial & so are forests. Our gardens don't serve the purpose of forests floodplains & wildlife habitats. Till July we were dreading with water crisis & later heaviest downpour led floods. The city was stranded for hours. We need2 balance this #SaveAareyForest." Netizen Manisha Singh tweeted, "Also, we cannot afford to kill trees in Mumbai at all. BMC census says, 'there is 1 tree for every 4 persons in Mumbai'. According to an IISc 2014 report, ideal ratio tree-human ratio should be 7 trees per person #saveAareysaveMumbai #SaveAareyForest."
For his support, Bachchan received plaudits from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). Ashwini Bhide, MMRCL managing director, retweeted and commented, "Thank u @SrBachchan Ji fr depicting d importance of #Metro so succinctly. Thank you for ur support. We'r committed 2 commission entire #MumbaiMetro network incldng @MumbaiMetro3 @ d earliest r prvide faster, safer, convenient & #PollutionFree commute 2 #Mumbaikars #AareyAikaNa."
