Amid criticism and protests against cutting of trees for the proposed Metro carshed inside Aarey Colony, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has now said that they will plant six times more trees.
The chief of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) Ashwini Bhide has been actively engaging on the micro blogging site- Twitter, defending the project and emphasising the need of Metro in a city like Mumbai. But on September 8, Bhide Tweeted saying that the MMRC will plant six times more trees. In Tweet she said, “There are total 3,691 trees in Metro-3 depot land. We will retain 1,045 trees. As per Tree Authority approval 461 trees are to be transplanted and 2,185 are to be cut. Six times more trees means 13110 trees to be newly planted. Please join us in planting them. #AareyAikaNa”.
According to DNA, Bhide also clarified that the plea to declare Aarey land as forest before Bombay High Court was dismissed on October 26, 2018 and special leave petition for relocation of carshed to alterate locations including Kanjurmarg was dismissed by Supreme Court on April 15,2019. In another tweet she mentioned, “Some say that objection is to Metro carshed, NOT to Metro. Answer is that Metro line cannot function without a carshed which is an integral part of the system.”
Using #AareyAikaNa, she even raised the issue of how Mumbai city desperately needs enhancement of its rail-based public transport network. “Suburban railways carry 80 lakh passengers per day. Once Metro network is commissioned it would carry about 45 lakh people by 2031 and 1 crore people by 2041 as per MMRDA CTS,” was one of her tweets.
