Mira-Bhayandar: A massive agitation by citizens and social organisations is in the offing against the massive cutting of trees proposed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to pave way for the construction of the car shed for the Metro-9 rail corridor (Dahisar to Bhayandar) at Dongri village in Uttan near Bhayandar.
In response to a public notice published by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) on 12, March, as many as 714 citizens-mostly from Bhayandar, Uttan and Dongri registered their objection to the proposal of axing 9,900 trees fearing an environmental disaster.
Grievances of 38 applicants-majority of the opinion that the depot should not be built at the Dongri site- was registered at the public hearing conducted by deputy municipal commissioner-Kalpita Pimple on Friday. The proposal has been submitted to the MBMC in two phases for cutting 2,500 and 9,900 trees.
However, the planning authority has maintained that 3,716 trees will be axed while 7,590 and 1,094 would be transplanted and retained respectively.
The car shed which was earlier planned to be constructed near Rai village was later shifted to government-owned vacant land parcels in Dongri, following a stiff resistance by locals whose homes and farmlands are at risk of damage leading to irreparable loss of livelihood.
An extension of Metro 7 (Andheri East to Dahisar East), the Metro-9 is a 13.581 km route, including 11.386 km elevated corridor. However, the further extension from Bhayandar to Uttan will put an additional multi-crore burden on the state exchequer.
