Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday said that he will not attend Mumbai's Aarey forest protest due to the scheduled sitting of the State Assembly today, reported ANI. Urging the newly inducted Eknath Shinde Maharashtra Government to scrap the Aarey metro project, Aditya Thackeray tweeted, “Since I have to attend the sitting of the State Legislative Assembly today, I will be missing out on the protest for Aarey Forest and the MMRCL land. I humbly urge the new Govt to reconsider its decision. Don’t cast the hate for us, on to our beloved Mumbai.” This comes as environmentalists and opposition are gearing up for another round of battle over the Metro-3 car shed project, which the new Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra has proposed to move back to Mumbai's Aarey forest, a 1,800-acre area which is often termed as the city's 'green lung'.


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Sharing the concerns about the Aarey forest project in a series of tweets, Thackeray added, “Aarey isn’t only about 2700+ trees, it is about it’s biodiversity that we are seeking to protect in our Mumbai. There are daily sightings of leopards and other smaller species in the carshed spot and around it. We’re proud of declaring more than 800 acres as forest around it.”



“While the carshed work was given a stay by the then CM, Uddhav Thackeray ji, the work on the Line 3 was fully supported to be carried on. The alternate location of Kanjurmarg, disputed by GoI, will fit in depots for metro lines 3,4,6,14 into 1 space, thus saving on cost & time,” the tweet further added.


Providing solution to the issue, Thackeray tweeted, “Line 6 would anyway need a carshed, either at Kanjurmarg (which was originally thought of in 2018) or at Pahadi Goregaon. Having studied both, both are feasible for Line 3 too. Metros don’t go to carshed after every trip, they need stabilising lines, that are missing for Line 3.”


Aarey metro shed forest project: What’s the issue?


In 2014, the Metro-3 car shed was first proposed at Aarey by then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, which was challenged by local NGO Vanshakti in the Bombay High Court, with a plea to prevent the cutting of trees in the area.


Fadnavis, who succeeded Chavan, went ahead with the same site.


But, green activists had vehemently opposed the cutting of trees in Aarey for the car shed.


After the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance came to power in 2019, the then CM Uddhav Thackeray reversed the decision, shifting the Metro-3 car shed to a site in the Kanjurmarg eastern suburb, but it was embroiled in a legal dispute.


The Thackeray government had also declared Aarey as a reserved forest.


On Thursday evening, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Fadnavis, in their first cabinet meeting held hours after coming to power, overturned the previous Thackeray-led government's decision


(With inputs from agencies)