Car shed back at Aarey: Fadnavis shows who rules
MUMBAI: The new Bjp-shinde government in its first cabinet meeting told urban development department to reverse Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to shift the Metro 3 car depot out of Aarey Milk Colony, and to restart Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan—the Fadnavis government’s flagship water conservation programme. The directives are early indications that the Bharatiya Janata Party will be steering the agenda of the Eknath Shinde-government.
Uddhav Thackeray after had stayed the construction of the Colaba-bandra-seepz metro 3 corridor and appointed a committee to look for alternative plots soon after taking over as CM in 2019. His government then designated Aarey colony as reserve forest. The Maharashtra government and the Centre were engaged in a subsequent battle over the new location for the car depot at Kanjurmarg, further delaying the 33 km underground metro project. The Thackeray government had taken the decision to shift the metro depot out of Aarey colony following vociferous protests by citizen groups and green activists against construction in one of few remanining green spots in Mumbai. Residents and environmentalists had also argued that the area was the habitat of several wild animals as it borders Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
Sources privy to Thursday’s meeting said Devendra Fadnavis asked the administration to direct state’s Advocate General that the metro car shed will be built at Aarey Milk Colony and to represent the state’s side accordingly in Court. Fadnavis, when he was the chief minister between 2014 and 2019 had pushed the Metro rail projects in Mumbai and other key cities such as Nagpur, Pune and Nashik. The project has since been delayed on account of the pandemic and lack of coordination between agencies. At the hearing on the Kanjurmarg car shed petition, Rui Rodrigues, advocate for the central government, asked the bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta for an additional one week for the next hearing. Initially, the matter was to be heard after three weeks next.