Mumbai: The Tree Authority of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have reffered back the proposal for cutting down 2300 trees for construction of the Mumbai Metro car shed in the meeting of the Tree Authority held on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the members of the Tree Authority had visited the plot in the Aarey Colony and on Wednesday in the Tree Authority meeting the proposal was tabled but the members of the Tree Authority from Shiv Sena and Congress had reffered back the proposal.
“We are not against the metro works but not at the cost of 2300 trees. After our inspection at the spot, we came to know that without the approval of the Tree Authority, the metro people had chopped down some trees. We have demanded the administration to register a case against the Metro Rail Corporation,” said Yashwant Jadhav, member of Tree Authority.
Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation submitted its first report on July 17, 2017 under the metro rail 3 project which will start from Andheri east to Aarey colny in Goregaon stating that after cutting 2300 trees, they will grow new 464 trees and will retain the 989 existing trees for the construction of the car shed.
But after this project was delayed after the environmentalist approached Bombay High Court. The Tree Authority Department along with the environmentalist submitted the suggestion and objections of the citizens regarding the cutting of trees for the car shed to the court afterwhich again the proposal was delayed.
There are 3661 trees planted on the Aarey land, out of which 2702 trees are the obstacle for the construction of the car shed. Out of the 2702 trees, Metro authority needs these 2300 trees to be cut down for the construction.
Environmentalist, political parties like Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had opposed the plan. Now even Shiv Sena is objecting the cutting of trees.
