Amid continuing protests by the Shiv Sena and MNS against the move to locate the Mumbai Metro III car shed at Aarey Colony in north Mumbai, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday favoured the car shed location at Aarey Colony itself, by saying there were sustainable solutions available to address the issue.
“The technology is now available to replant grown up trees through mechanized uprooting and replanting them at an alternative site. Delhi Metro is a standing example in this regard, where for every one tree cut, five more trees were planted,” Javdekar said, while delivering his keynote address at the 11th National Convention on Sustainable Development Goals held here.
Treading cautiously on the politically sensitive issue, Javdekar stressed on the need for replanting the grown up trees elsewhere or planting more number of trees in place of the 350 trees to be felled during the course of metro car shed development at Aarey colony. Javdekar’s statement came a day after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis dropped strong hints that the Government will go ahead with the Mumbai Metro III car shed at Aarey Colony.
However, Javdekar’s statement favouring the location of Mumbai Metro III car shed at Aarey Colony resulted in instant protest from Maharashtra’s Industry Minister Subhash Desai of the Shiv Sena, who was also present at the convention on the sustainable development.
Talking to media persons after the convention, Desai reiterated his party’s opposition to the location of metro car shed at Aarey Colony, saying that there was a need for the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation which had on March 6 decided to locate car shed in the wooded area of Aarey Colony.
“The location of the metro car shed at Aarey colony will not bring about any development in the area chosen for the purpose, but massive tree felling would harm the environment in the area. The car shed can easily be shifted to some other location,” Desai said, as he opposed to the ruling BJP’s keenness to locate the car shed at Aarey colony.
Javdekar had to deal with the metro car shed location issue once again when he addressed a news conference at the State BJP headquarters later in the day.
When a media person drew the minister’s attention to the Shiv Sena’s objection to locating the metro car shed at Aarey colony, Javdekar chose to stay clear of any controversy. “The metro car shed issue is a state subject and comes under the purview of the Urban Development department. Aarey Colony is not forest land. It is non-forest land, and hence Environment Ministry is not in the picture,” he said.
Javadekar said in his keynote address he had said that sustainable solutions were possible, and cited the Delhi Metro as being an example of how sustainable development could be done without compromising with the environment.
“In my address, I said that since I moved to New Delhi in 2003, I have seen the Delhi Metro project grow from one station to 200 stations, and 20 lakh commuters use it today, significantly reducing vehicular pollution. Some trees had to be cut, but for each tree five more trees of the same species were replanted,” Javdekar said.
Javdekar said that the BJP-led NDA government was committed to sustainable development, and his ministry had cleared nearly all big infrastructure projects planned in Mumbai including the Chhatrapati Shivaji statue, the Coastal Road, the Mumbai Transharbour link project.
Giving details of how his ministry had simplified the process for environmental clearances, Javdekar said that earlier it would take 12 to 13 months to formalise the terms of references for industrial regions. “Now we have standardised the terms of reference for 39 industrial regions, and hence they are now issued within one month. The environment clearances process has been made online from July 4, 2014, allowing project investors as well as the government to track the application online and remove any hindrances,” he said.