The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Tuesday said it would not need any land in Aarey colony for its Metro Line 6.
The authority, which is executing all Metros in the city except Metro Line 3, issued a statement to clarify on media reports that it had asked for land in Aarey for a casting yard.
“It is clarified that the MMRDA has arranged casting yards for Line 6 at Wadala and other sites of existing yards and there is no proposal for casting yard land in Aarey,” the statement said.
Aarey colony has been in the spotlight for several months over the contentious issue of removing 2,646 trees for a car depot for Metro Line 3, which is being built by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited.
The MMRDA said it had asked for two small vacant plots, which have no trees, for site work along the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, on which Metro Line 6 is being built. “Now with alternative arrangement made, only one plot measuring about 1,500 sq m lying between JVLR and Adani Electricity Management Institute, which is already being used for Metro site work for one year, will be used temporarily for one more year,” an MMRDA official said.
The move comes after several citizen’s groups and environmental activists, who have been fighting to save the plot of land for over two years, have increased the intensity of their campaign after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Tree Authority accepted the proposal to remove the trees.
The 14.6-km-long Metro Line 6 is being built between Swami Samarth Nagar in Oshiwara and Vikhroli is expected to cost ₹ 6,716 crore.
