Bombay HC stays shifting of Metro carshed

The Bombay High Court has granted an interim stay on the Mumbai collector’s order to transfer 102 acres of land to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for constructing the carshed. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s plan to shift controversial Metro 3 car shed out of Aarey Milk Colony. State environment minister Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday said that we await the detailed written order to decide the future course of action. He added, “This land is crucial for Metro Line 6, 4 and 14, apart from 3, as it will save almost Rs5,500 crore of Govt and be a nodal point for 1 crore citizens.” The Thackeray government had scrapped Devendra Fadnavis government’s decision to build carshed at Aarey Colony despite opposition from environment activists and citizen groups who had insisted that Aarey wad one of the last green spots in Mumbai.

In a major decision, the MVA government had announced shifting the carshed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg in order to save the green lung. It was further decided that the land at Kanjurmarg will be utilised for Metro 6 (Swami Samath Nagar-Vikhroli), 4 (Wadala-Kasarwadavali) and 14 (Kanjurmarg-Badlapur). According to DPIIT, the Centre had filed a writ petition against several salt department lands — including the Kanjurmarg plot — and the decision was pending before the HC. The state, however, continued to maintain that the land belongs to Maharashtra and the work continued on site. It pointed out that the revenue authority had ruled that the land belonged to the state government.