The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s (MMRCL) Managing Director, Ashwini Bhide, on Wednesday said she could not give into the demand of citizens to avoid cutting a “substantial amount of trees” for the Metro Line 3 project. She also said a committee would not be formed to look into their concerns.
On Tuesday, after the petitioners — Nina Verma, Pervin Jehangir and Zoru Bhathena — approached Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, he had directed Ms. Bhide to set up a committee to look into the issue. The Chief Minister’s Office had also tweeted, “CM instructed Constitution of joint team of officials of MumbaiMetroRail Corp & prominent citizens to study impact & minimise loss of trees.”
However, on Wednesday, after meeting the petitioners, Ms. Bhide said, “We had a three-hour-long discussion. We told them we have already saved nearly 100 trees, and will save more wherever possible during the construction. But their expectation to save 50% to 60% of trees and also construct the Metro is not possible.” A statement by the petitioners said senior MMRCL officials told them that there was no way the Metro could be built without removing the trees.
The statement says, “They explained years of intense planning has been done after consulting experts from all over the world. There was no discussion about any ‘committee’. They reaffirmed that they can either build the station or save the trees, but not do both.”
R. Ramana, Executive Director (Planning), MMRCL, said the number of trees that were to be cut has already been reduced. “If there are a few trees in the fringe zone of the construction then we will save them. But without cutting trees, the project is not possible. The emotional attachment of two or three people cannot stop the project. We are building the Metro for lakhs of commuters.” Mr. Ramana said according to the Tree Authority of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, of the 3,870 trees on the Metro route, 1,050 will be cut, 1,730 will be transplanted and 1,090 will be saved by modifying the construction plan.
However, Mr. Bhathena, who procured the figures from the MMRCL through an RTI application, put the number of affected trees at 5,012, of which 1,331 will be cut and 3,681 transplanted. He also said nearly 100 trees have been cut so far as part of the project. Last week, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice G.S. Kulkarni, directed the MMRCL and the BMC to not cut anymore trees, and sought information about a survey they had conducted before deciding to cut the trees. The matter will be heard on February 20.
Mum on Metro car shed
According to activists, 2,430 trees will be axed in Aarey Colony, the most in the city. Ms. Jehangir said, “The MMRCL officials spent a lot of time explaining they have done everything to save trees. They were not willing to discuss shifting the Metro car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg. Instead, they asked why we were not focusing on the slum encroachments that have eaten up land there.”
Environmental activist and director of NGO Vanashakti, Stalin Dayanand, said he was not surprised by the MMRCL’s decision to not set up a committee. He said Mr. Fadnavis in 2015 had formed a committee on the same issue, but it did not yield any result that was different from the current plan.
