SC stays felling of trees along another Mumbai Metro corridor

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) – the nodal agency responsible for constructing Mumbai’s 12-line, 156-km long Metro rail network – to stop the felling of trees and maintain status quo on the Metro 4 project for two weeks until the petitioner can amend his application to the Bombay High Court and add a specific request to protect 700 trees along the corridor. The 32.32-km Metro 4 corridor extends from Wadala in central Mumbai to Kasarvadavali in neighbouring Thane district.

Thane resident Rohit Joshi approached the SC after a Bombay High Court bench vacated the stay on cutting of trees for the Metro 4 project on November 25.

This is the second time in two months that the SC has put a stay on the felling of trees for the Mumbai Metro project. On October 7, the apex court had asked the Maharashtra government not to cut any more trees at the ecologically sensitive area of Aarey in north Mumbai where a Metro car shed for the Metro 3 line and a multi-storeyed Metro headquarters are supposed to come up.

On November 29, hours into taking office, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray ordered a stay on the felling of trees at Aarey, while allowing the Metro rail work to continue. Mumbai residents staying along the 23.6-km Metro 2B corridor approached Thackeray on Monday to intervene and convert the project into an underground one. In a letter addressed to Yuva Sena chief and MLA Aaditya Thackeray, citizens sought a meeting with the chief minister to apprise him of what they termed a “longpending demand to make the project underground fearing traffic congestion on the SV Road.” Residents of Bandra, Khar and Juhu have also staged protests.