MMRDA seeks green nod for Metro project in Aarey, department defers proposal

The MMRDA has tabled a proposal before the Maharashtra environment department to obtain an environmental clearance for its contentious Metro Bhavan project in Aarey Colony, a site already at the centre of a few political rows for the MVA government.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has tabled a proposal before the Maharashtra environment department to obtain an environmental clearance (EC) for its contentious Metro Bhavan project in Aarey Colony, a site already at the centre of a few political rows for the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The government —comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress — has been vocal in its support towards protecting the city’s prime green lung, even shifting a proposed Metro car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg.

(HT)

The MMRDA proposal, seeking an EC for a 32-storey building named Metro Bhavan at Survey No. 589A, Village Pahadi, Goregaon East, was tabled on December 17, 2020, via an MMRDA letter to the environment department, attached with requisite paperwork. The matter was then recommended for clearance by a State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) on Feb 17, “subject to compliances”. The proposal was further considered by the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) on Feb 26, when it was “deferred for compliance of change of land use,” as per publicly available documents accessed by the Hindustan Times.

The MMRDA’s proposal is listed as application number SIA/MH/MIS/188820/2020 on PARIVESH, a single-window online portal for processing environmental and CRZ clearances. Confirming that the authority has received MMRDA’s proposal, Vijay Shantilal Nahata, chairman of the SEIAA, said, “The project has presently not been given EC.”

After assuming office in November 2019, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, responding to public outcry, had stalled construction of the Metro-3 car shed and stated that there will be no more felling of trees in the area. Despite declaring over 600 acres of Aarey Colony as a reserved forest since then, the government has not publicly cleared its stance on the Metro Bhavan, which is also located within Aarey. However, Dr Sonia Sethi, additional metropolitan commissioner and project director, MUTP, MMRDA, confirmed that the project is currently in the works and that a site office has already been established at the proposed location.

“Metro Bhavan for centralised integrated operation, command and control of all 14 metro lines is proposed at Pahari Goregaon CTS No. 589 (A), Mumbai. In addition, it will have a metro training academy, simulation centre, central surveillance system, etc.,” Sethi said in a note to HT on Sunday.

Of the 205 trees present on site, 85 are proposed to be felled and 73 are proposed to be transplanted, in order to make room for Metro Bhavan. The remaining trees will be retained on site.

Moreover, 20,387 sq m of Aarey land are proposed to be converted from a “No Development Zone” to a “residential zone”, for the project as per the MMDRA’s application Form 1 (which has been reviewed by HT).

The state had invited suggestions and objections from citizens on this change in land use, in August 2019. It received 2,563 responses by March 2020. Virtual public hearings to address citizens’ concerns commenced in July last year, but the minutes of these are not publicly available.

A senior government official who is privy to the matter, but did not wish to be identified by their name or department, said, “The EC cannot be granted at this point because the change of land use has not been executed yet. The SEIAA will decide on the matter only after the conversion of ‘No Development Zone’ has been notified. Once that condition has been complied with, other aspects of the project will be scrutinised.”

Environmentalists’ responses to these developments were critical. “We are shocked to learn that the very same government which committed to protecting Aarey in entirety are now themselves planning to construct a 32-storey office building inside Aarey,” said Zoru Bhathena, an environmentalist who has filed two petitions regarding the Aarey dispute in the Bombay High Court.

This view was echoed by Stalin Dayanand, director of NGO Vanashakti, who has filed another three petitions related to the Aarey matter in the Supreme Court.

“The Metro car shed and the Metro Bhavan were very strategically introduced from different directions to facilitate faster constructions inside Aarey. The way events are unfolding it seems like the govt. bodies are acting like free radicals who disregard the opinion of the chief minister and the people. Instead of securing the ecology of Aarey, they are giving sanctity to upcoming projects which can easily be located in non-ecologically sensitive zones,” Dayanand said.