The Aerey Metro Car Shed

 The Aarey metro Car Shed - Mumbai

The Aarey metro Car Shed issue - which is turning out to be another case of NGO mafia trying to halt critical projects in India with the help of useful idiots (uninformed citizenry who fall for their propaganda and then spread it).

To begin with , Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro is a 33.5 km long underground metro connecting Colaba and SEEPZ, with 26 underground and 1 at- grade station.

This line is possibly the most critical line of the Mumbai Metro as it connects 6 prominent business districts (Cuffe-Parade ,Nariman Point,Ballard Estate,Lower Parel area ,BKC ,SEEPZ), 2 outstation terminuses (CSMT, Mumbai Central) and 2 terminals of Airport.

Now once again NGO mafia are confusing people by saying that “green lungs of Mumbai will be destroyed”.

Firstly , many are confused between Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Aarey.

Sanjay Gandhi National Park is spread over 11,687 hectares. Aarey Colony is SEPARATE from it and is 1287 hectares.

The metro shed will be built only on 30 hectares of Aarey Land and even in those 30 hectares , 5 hectares would be kept absolutely intact and 25 be used for the carshed.

Thus , only 2 percent of the entire Aarey Colony would be used for the metro car-shed.

Also , 83% of this car-shed area is already without tree cover. Also , this car-shed location is surrounded by 3 major roads - JVLR, Marol-Maroshi Road and Goregaon Powai road.

Now talking in terms of trees ,as per 2017-2018 tree census , Mumbai has approximately 29.75 lakh trees and in Aarey Milk Colony has approximately 4.8 lakh trees, the metro car-shed area has 3691 trees , out of which 461 trees will be transplanted and 2,185 trees cut while the rest wont be touched.

But to compensate for the 2,185 cut trees , 6 times more new trees are to be planted and also geotagged.

Not many activists would tell these facts.

Nowhere is the claim by NGO mafia led activists - that Mumbai’s green lungs are being destroyed , is close to reality.

And Aarey is not a forest as claimed by activists. It is a dairy and grazing land. National Green Tribunal and Bombay High Court have rejected the activists claim of Aarey being a forest. That’s why the name -Aarey ‘Milk’ Colony.

Now I do agree that tree cutting is not desirable.

But the fact is , that metro does require a car-shed to function.

The metro 3 line is definitely going to be extremely busy and thus would need a car-shed capable of catering to 8 car trains.

Now many alternate sites like MMRDA ground BKC ,Kalina University , Backbay Reclamation , Mumbai Port Trust , Dharavi etc have been considered at DPR and technical committee stage but rejected on grounds of inadequate land area , technical suitability , environment ,legal/ownership constraints and regulatory constraints.

The Kanjurmarg land which activists claim as an alternative is not only in a title dispute between 2 parties but also more than 10 kms from the line ! Car-sheds are never built 10 km away from the line.

It is not that state government has directly out of its will selected land in Aarey.

Environment Impact assessment study report 

has been done and also Supreme Court has upheld the car-shed being built at Aarey.

Everyday on average 10 people die while travelling on the suburban railway network.

This is in addition to those dying in road accidents.

This line alone has the potential to take lakhs of vehicular trips off the road - reducing their fossil fuel usage as well as their emissions. Also , alongwith other metro lines, will surely reduce crowding in suburban local trains.

Thus, overall this project will have a highly positive impact on Mumbai’s environment and also on Mumbaikar’s lives.

Now just imagine the impact when the entire interconnected network of Mumbai Metro of more than 300 kms will be up and running in the next 5-7 years as lines open up one by one.

Do not allow NGO mafia and activists to disrupt this critical project in the name of environment.

Delay in this line has already increased costs from 23,000 crores to 30,000 crores. Of these 30,000 crores , 11,198.33 crores have already been invested , 61% of tunelling work ,40% station work completed and 10 system contracts awarded.

A day’s delay in this project would cost ₹4.3 crores.

Now for a fun fact -

The entire Royal Palms project , which includes a golf course, is sandwiched between Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Aarey Milk Colony,

Also , the entire Film City is practically an encroachment of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. And if you compare old and new satellite images of film city , you will see how many trees have been cut to make way for studios and sets.

Both of these are much bigger than Metro Car-shed.

But none of the NGO brigade and activists protested against Royal Palms and Film Industry.

Also , most Bollymorons who travel in big diesel guzzling SUVs even when they are travelling alone and sometimes even use private jets are suddenly pretending to care for environment.

Do not bother about them. As these celebrities have a much higher carbon footprint lifestyle than common Mumbaikars.

Do not fall for these hypocrites’ propaganda.

If they indeed care about trees , first thing these celebs should do is lobby with production houses and get them to collectively return more than 30 hectares of their land to the state government for afforestation.

Not many celebs would use the metro to travel to film city and events , despite the fact that it would be possible for them to do so from Bandra ,Juhu as well as Lokhandwala once the metro network comes up.

Any stalling of Line 3 metro work would have a huge negative impact on several other infrastructure projects. Do not allow this.