New Delhi: The Maharashtra government on July 21, Thursday lifted the stay order on the construction of the Mumbai Metro Line 3 car shed at Aarey Colony in the western suburbs.

The decision to resume work on Aarey metro car shed was taken after Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis took oath as chief minister and deputy chief minister on June 30.

“We have examined the entire matter and there is no need to bring the matter before the Cabinet. We asked the implementing agency, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), to prepare the proposal and mobilise contractor,” an official of the urban development department told the Indian Express.

The newspaper reported, citing officials, that the urban development department and MMRC had discussed this matter at the political level on July 20, Wednesday.

In 2019, the Uddhav Thackeray government had stalled work on the Aarey metro rail car shed, citing environment concerns.

The decision to set up the car shed in the Aarey area had faced opposition from environmentalists as it entailed cutting down hundreds of trees. The Thackeray-led government had later announced shifting of the project to Kanjurmarg.

“If the car shed is shifted to Kanjurmarg, it will end up in cutting of more number of trees, the project will be delayed and crores of rupees will be wasted,” Fadnavis had claimed.

However, the plan to shift the car shed construction to Kanjurmarg had been stuck.

The Bombay high court on December 14, 2020 stayed an order passed by Mumbai suburban district collector allotting 102 acres of salt pan land in the Kanjurmarg area for the construction of the metro car shed. The court had also restrained the authorities from carrying out any construction work on the said land.

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The 33-km-long underground metro 3 project aims to connect Colaba in south Mumbai and SEEPZ.

Earlier, in October 2019, when Devendra Fadnavis was the chief minister, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited had cut down more than 2,000 trees in the area for constructing the car shed. The trees were cut in just 24 hours after the Bombay high court overruled petitions challenging the felling of trees in the area.

The cutting of trees had led to a series of protests by local tribals across the city. The police had arrested at least 29 persons, including environmental activists, who were protesting against the cutting of trees in Aarey Colony. Several opposition leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party MLA Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Sena leader and former mayor Shubha Raul, were detained.

Now years later, concerned Mumbaikars are once again up in arms against the decision to build a car shed in Aarey colony, The Wire reported.

The plan to construct a metro car shed in the Aarey forest has been on the cards for almost a decade, the report said.

Aarey is a forested patch in the city and was once connected to the adjoining Sanjay Gandhi National Park, said wildlife biologist Anand Pendharkar, chief executive officer of Sprouts, an organisation that focuses on wildlife conservation and awareness. Some parts of Aarey were declared an ecosensitive zone of the Park in 2016.

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