Aarey Colony is already commercially exploited, does not have any dense tree cover: MMRCL to Bombay High Court

Mumbai: The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd on Tuesday dubbed Aarey Colony as an already ‘commercially exploited land’, which does not have any ‘dense tree cover.’

MMRCL made these submissions before the Bombay High Court while defending its decision to construct a car shed for the controversial Metro III line, which connects Colaba-Seepz-Bandra. This comes in an affidavit filed by MMRCL through its chief project manager before a division bench of Justice Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Justice Prakash Naik.

In its affidavit, MMRCL said, “We deny that the land at Aarey Depot is a pristine area of land, that the entire plot has a dense tree cover, that it is a naturally forested area or that it is completely an uninhabited area.” MMRCL cited a February 2016 affidavit of the Maharashtra government, wherein it denied any demarcation of Aarey Colony as forest land. “Apart from this, Aarey Colony was proposed to be included within the Eco Sensitive Zone of Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

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The expert committee, constituted for declaration of ESZ, had however unanimously decided that 165 hectares of Aarey land would be used for the Metro car shed,” the affidavit reads. To substantiate its claim of Aarey being an already commercially exploited land, MMRCL said that there are several stables and cattle sheds on the land apart from school buildings, police wireless stations, hospitals, godowns, salt breaking unit, factories, general stores and a Reliance Energy sub-station along with a Ready- Mix Concrete manufacturing plant.

MMRCL also highlighted the presence of the Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth in Aarey Colony area along with a boiler house, central dairy and other buildings and garages. “The allegation that the car shed is sought to be located at Aarey Colony as the first of the several steps to exploit Aarey colony commercially by permitting residential and commercial buildings is false and unwarranted. In fact, the government, while approving allotment for the car shed, has specifically disallowed any commercial user on the said land,” the affidavit reads.

While highlighting benefits of this car shed, MMRCL said, “The proposed metro car shed is only about 170 metres away from the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR). This station will serve as a very important multi-modal interchange point to service nearby densely-populated areas of Powai, Andheri, Vikhroli, Kanjurmarg, Jogeshwari, etc. The plot is surrounded on three sides by roads, on which there is significant vehicular traffic.” Apart from all this, MMRCL reiterated that it will plant an equivalent number of trees at the station sites after the station work is completed. The matter has been adjourned for final hearing till April 9.