With the Mumbai Metro Line 3 work going on in full swing, the Bombay High Court is wondering what will Mumbai be left with after the work is completed. The tug of war between the Maharashtra government and environmental groups over the now-branded non-eco-sensitive 33 hectares of Aarey Milk Colony in Goregaon has already been won by the former and the land has been issued to be denotified for Metro III car shed by the High Court on Thursday.
Following the thread of this dubious condition, a bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre is comprehending the aftermath as to what will remain of Mumbai after the Metro job is done. Referring to roads dug up all over the city by Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) for Metro III (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz), the judges asked how long will the work go on.
August 24, 2017, notification changing the land from non-development zone to reservation for the car shed can be called as the beginning of the end of the Aarey Milk Colony. Even as the court heard a PIL challenging the notification which argued how proper procedures were newer followed and also there was an alternative site at Kanjurmarg, the petition went soon dismissed.
On the grounds of the Kanjurmarg plot being under litigation, MMRC’s advocate Shardul Singh quoted a committee that recommended in 2015 that if the land was not available within three months, they should go with the Aarey plot. Singh also pointed out that the proposal was for a car shed and commercial zone but the state government only approved the car shed. By that time, work on 10 hectares had already started while Singh said that the proposed construction work will be done in such a way so as to cause minimum damage.
It is quite clear that the government has some or the other hidden agenda behind this plan which it is not willing to declare this time. It’s questionable what prevents the Fadnavis government and the Union ministry – Constitutionally obliged to protect the environment and conserve wildlife- from further invading into the green zone, so precious to the city and fundamentally damaging the urban eco-system of Mumbai.