Mumbai: Reject Modified Plan To Replace & Replant Trees
The report on the best site for the Metro III car shed will be ready in a week, said metropolitan commissioner U P S Madan recently .
The metropolitan commissioner heads the technical committee set up look for the best site for the Metro III car shed after there was opposition to building the shed in the Aarey Milk Colony at the cost of several trees. Madan said the committee would hold its last meeting on Friday . On Wednesday , activists attended a hearing of the technical committee. The committee sought to know their opinion on tree transplantation. The committee assured them that 10 times the number of trees cut would be planted in Aarey and looked after if the metro car shed were constructed there.
Activists turned down any idea of the metro car shed in Aarey and did not agree to the modified plan. “The point is that trees inside a forest are part of an ecosystem and cannot be seen as disposable commodities,“ D Stalin, director of the NGO Vanashakti that is part of the Save Aarey Movement, said.
Environmentalist Rishi Agarwal said they were firm that the car shed should come up in Kanjurmarg.
“This way it will serve the people in Powai too, who are largely dependent on private transport,“ he said. “The Aarey landscape can't be changed.“ Stalin said the survival rate of transplanted trees was poor.
Activists said the committee had seven alternatives, including barren land in BKC, abandoned salt pan land off the Eastern Express Highway , land next to JVLR, and controlled reclamation in Cuffe Parade.
MNS leader Raj Thackeray also slammed the state government move to go ahead with the car shed project in Aarey after senior BJP minister Eknath Khadse reportedly made a statement to the effect on Wednesday .
“My party will oppose the shed at Aarey tooth and nail,“ the MNS chief said. “Setting up the shed at Aarey will be the defeat of sensitive, conscientious citizens of Mumbai.“
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