Six days after Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray sought transfer of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) managing director Ashwini Bhide for not heeding citizens' resistance to tree felling in Aarey Colony for a Metro car shed, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis threw his weight behind the need for axing trees to build the depot. Fadnavis, however, admitted that there were trees in the area, though the land they are rooted in isn't forestland, nor is it protected as a biodiversity zone. During his ongoing Maha-janadesh Yatra, Fadnavis said on Sunday he could understand Thackeray's point of view on felling of the trees, but the Sena youth wing leader should also know the real motives of some of the protesters. WHY MUMBAI NEEDS METRO-3 14 lakh passengers are likely to commute by Metro-3 daily, and 17 lakh by 2031; with this 15-20% traffic from the suburban railway network will move to Metro rail Seven days of Metro operation will cut an amount of CO2 equivalent to that absorbed by 2,646 trees in a single year; furthermore 2.61 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions will be reduced once Metro 3 will be operational Metro line 3 would take away 4.3 lakh vehicles off the roads per day; because of this, 2.43 lakh litre of fuel would be saved from burning due to the vehicles going off the road On Sunday, Aaditya Thackeray said he hoped for a Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance for the state elections. The Chief Minister said that he would discuss the matter with Aaditya and convince him of the need for such actions for development. Fadnavis said the Supreme Court had already clarified that the land proposed for the Metro-3 car depot was government land and did not come under forest or biodiversity zones. He also said that in view of the status of the land, permissions to raise a Metro car shed could be granted. "So the state government, by adhering to orders passed by the apex court, is working on the project," the CM summed up. Fadnavis said that the MMRC had received 13,000 objections of which 10,000 had been put up on a Bengaluru-based website. He pointed out that the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro line has received funding from Japan and termed the project "carbon ultra-positive." "When they fund any project, they keep its sustainability in mind. Japan did a study on the project for one year and gave funding to it after that," he said. When it was decided to set up a Metro depot on the proposed site, the government had planted 23,000 trees in the area, he said. The chief minister further said that the state government had launched a plantation drive for 50 crore trees across Maharashtra, of which 33 crore have already been planted. "We save trees because we want to reduce carbon footprint. So we need to understand one thing that how much carbon footprint is going to be reduced due to this underground Metro line," he said. The Sena-BJP ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation recently gave the go-ahead to cut over 2,600 trees for constructing the Metro shed at Aarey Colony. The chief minister's strong defence for Metro car shed depot in Aarey Colony comes close on the heels of BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi's statement that the Metro-3 project would not materialise without the depot at Aarey Colony. Similarly, MMRC MD Ashwini Bhide argued that the Metro-3 project would not be feasible if the depot was not at the site currently proposed. At the DNA Samwad event last week, Bhide said MMRC was in possession of 30 hectares of land at Aarey for the Metro car shed, and this land was not entirely occupied by trees. "There are around 3,000 trees but they are scattered only on 17% of the land. We were asked by the Tree Authority to retain a large chunk of trees congregated on one particular piece in the middle. So we have decided to retain the green cover on five hectares of land, which will remain untouched. So our car shed will come up on 25 hectares land,'' she had said. Bhide admitted that it was a major challenge for MMRC to design a depot for 31 Metro trains with eight coaches each over just 25 hectares of land. "However, MMRC decided to curtail some of the stabling lines for which we have created additional space elsewhere near the station. Two trains each can be stabled in the facilities at BKC and even Cuffe Parade,'' she had said.

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