By Apurva Bhatt
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is facing hurdle from within its ally, Shiv Sena as protests and voices against the government’s plan to build a Metro car shed at the Aarey Milk Colony becomes stronger.
Aditya Thackeray joined hands earlier this week with activists from the Save Aarey Milk Colony group, an informal organisation of environmentalists, activists and citizens, and called for the government to scrap the car shed plan. When asked about this, Aditya Thackeray says, “We are very much part of the government, but that doesn’t mean we will accept things against the nature. Let Aarey remain as it is, we want the Metro car shed to shift somewhere else. Also the Metro 3 line (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) passes through chawls of Girgaum, and will displace a lot of people. We are against this. Hence, I feel that the Metro Line 3 should be scrapped. When a financially viable coastal road project is going to come up, I don’t understand the need for the Metro Line 3,” Thackeray said.
When asked about this to a senior official from MMRDA he said, “The protests are not a good sign as the project will suffer. The project has received the necessary loan and the government is willing to accommodate all issues, but we cannot scrap the project totally.” The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), a body led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, plans to cut 2,298 trees from Aarey Milk Colony to make way for a Metro car shed.
