Mumbai Metro: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis flagged off the trial run of Metro Line-3 at around 11 am in Mumbai.
Mumbai Metro: The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) on Tuesday started the trial run of Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro Line-3 at Sariput Nagar in Aarey Colony. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis flagged off the trial run at around 11 am. On this occasion, Fadnavis said that the opposition to the Metro Line 3 project (car shed) is more political than the issue of environment. He said that Metro Line 3 will connect south Mumbai with the western suburbs and is expected to ease the burden on suburban locals. This metro line will be 33.5 km long underground route.
Before giving green signal to Metro Line 3, Shinde and Fadnavis inspected the Metro train from inside. Ashwini Bhide, Managing Director, MMRCL was present on the occasion. The construction of a metro car shed at Aarey, a forest land adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, was one of the first decisions reversed by the Shinde-Fadnavis government formed on June 30 this year.
मुंबईकरांचे मेट्रोचे स्वप्न साकार करणारा मुंबई मेट्रो मार्ग-३ म्हणजेच कुलाबा-वांद्रे-सीप्झ या मार्गावरील मेट्रो रेल्वेची चाचणीचा उद्घाटन सोहळा आज मोठ्या उत्साहात संपन्न झाला. यासमयी उपमुख्यमंत्री @Dev_Fadnavis जी देखील उपस्थित होते. pic.twitter.com/fVshnYDRbf
— Eknath Shinde – एकनाथ शिंदे (@mieknathshinde) August 30, 2022
Uddhav Thackeray had appealed not to pursue the project
Last month, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had appealed to the new government not to go ahead with the construction of the car shed in Aarey. He had said that it would be like stabbing in the heart of Mumbai. However, Fadnavis responded by saying that in my opinion the ongoing opposition to the Metro Line-3 project is more political than environmental reasons.
After the commissioning of Metro Line 3 in Mumbai, about 17 lakh people will be able to travel daily. With the start of this line, about seven lakh vehicles will be removed from the roads. This will only help the environment.
There was huge opposition to the Aarey Metro Project
In 2014, the Metro-3 car shed was first proposed in Aarey by the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, which was challenged in the Bombay High Court by local NGO Vanshshakti, with a petition to stop the felling of trees in the area. . After Chavan, Fadnavis proceeded with the same site on the Metro Line 3 project, but environmental activists strongly opposed the cutting of trees for the car shed in Aarey.
After the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance came to power in 2019, the then CM Uddhav Thackeray reversed the decision to relocate 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 a reserved forest.
Recently, CM Shinde and Fadnavis in their first cabinet meeting overturned the decision of the previous Thackeray-led government. The Metro Line-3 project is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
