Fadnavis orders shifting of metro car shed project back to Aarey Colony

MUMBAI: In his first cabinet meeting after taking charge as Maharashtra deputy chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday overturned the decisions of former chief Uddhav Thackeray to shift the Metro 3 car shed out of the Aarey Milk colony and ordered a restart of the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan — the flagship water conservation scheme from his previous regime as the CM, functionaries familiar with the matter said.

After taking over as CM in 2019, Thackeray had stayed the construction of the Colaba-bandra-seepz metro 3 corridor and appointed a committee to look for alternative plots. Subsequently, his government designated Aarey colony as a reserve forest.

The Maharashtra government and the Centre were engaged in a battle over the proposed car depot plot in Kanjurmarg, thus delaying the 33-km underground metro project. The Thackeray government decided to shift the metro depot out of Aarey colony, following protests by activists against construction in one of few remaining green spots in Mumbai.

According to a functionary who did not want to be named, Fadnavis asked the administration to direct the state’s advocate general that the shed will be built in Aarey.

Thackeray had also stayed the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan and initiated an investigation into alleged irregularities in the scheme. The multi-crore drought-proofing scheme, which was Fadnavis’s pet project, had been criticised by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report which was tabled in the state legislature in September 2020.