Mumbai: After having cut thousands of trees across the city, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) has now trained its sights on one of the city’s green lungs — Aarey. The metro authority, accordingly, moved the Bombay High Court on Thursday, seeking permission to fell trees in the Aarey Colony.
The MMRCL has proposed to construct a car shed at Aarey Colony for its controversial Metro III line (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ). A division bench led by Chief Justice Naresh Patil, however, did not grant any such permission, in view of the fact that the Tree Authority (TA), which is authorised to deal with such matters, is yet to be reconstituted.
The TA was dismantled last year, by a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka, after noting the gross violations committed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in forming the authority. Since then, there is no TA, as the civic body has not taken any steps to reconstitute a new one. The bench of Justice Oka had clearly said no tree could be cut or felled without the leave of the TA.
When the matter was taken up for hearing on Thursday, the counsel appearing for the MMRCL urged the bench to permit the authority to proceed with cutting trees, as its work has come to a complete standstill. The MMRCL’s request was vehemently opposed by the counsel appearing for activist Zoru Bhathena, whose petition was being heard by the bench. The counsel submitted that unless the TA is constituted, the MMRCL cannot fell even a single tree.
During the course of the hearing, the counsel appearing for the BMC apprised the bench of the fact that the civic body would be publishing advertisements calling for experts to be appointed in the mandatory TA. “We will constitute the new TA within a period of 10 days. And in the first meeting of the TA, we will take up this issue and decide on it as per the merits,” the BMC counsel submitted. Having heard the submissions advanced, CJ Patil adjourned the matter for further hearing on March 4.