Aaditya Thackeray had vehemently opposed the construction of the car shed at Aarey.
A four-member committee was appointed by Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray last month to explore and suggest alternative locations to shift the car shed for Mumbai Metro out of the green zone at Aarey in the western suburbs of Mumbai. The committee is said to have submitted its report to the Chief Minister's Office on Tuesday, saying there was no viable alternative location available in Mumbai for the metro car shed.
For the last two years, environmentalists have been protesting the decision by Mumbai's civic body's Tree Authority of constructing the car shed for Mumbai Metro at Aarey, which has more than five lakh trees. Aarey Colony, a green belt in suburban Goregaon, together with Sanjay Gandhi National Park, is known as the green lung of the metropolis.
The state government report comes months after Aaditya Thackeray, who is now the Environment Minister, vehemently opposed the construction of the car shed at Aarey, back when Devendra Fadnavis was the Chief Minister.
"The report of the panel has not been received completely as yet. It might have come to the CMO (Chief Minister's Office), but it is yet to be read and discussed. Also, it is not binding on the government to follow the recommendations made in the report. The government shall study the report and make the decision keeping in mind the public sentiments," Aaditya Thackeray, 29, said.
Reacting to the development, Devendra Fadnavis, who is now the leader of opposition, said his government had decided to construct a car shed at Aarey only after consultation with a similar committee back in 2015.
In October 2019, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation , the modal body overlooking the work for the metro, had cut over 2,000 trees for the metro car shade at Aarey. The trees were chopped down in a single night amid massive protests and petitions in court last year.
At that time, the Shiv Sena opposed the act and had promised to shift the car shed if it came to power.