NEW DELHI: Nothing that a substantial number of trees have already been cut for the construction of car depot for Metro Line III located at Aarey colony, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the Maharashtra government’s July 21, 2022 decision to relocate the car depot back to Aarey Colony from Kanjurmarg.
Hours after coming to power, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis had overturned the Uddhav Thackarey government’s decision to shift the proposed car shed project from Aarey Colony. The Thackarey government had in November 2019 announced a stay on the construction of the proposed project and later ordered that the car shed be shifted to Kanjurmarg.
The bench said that the court cannot be oblivious to the serious dislocation which will be caused if public investment that has gone into the project is disregarded.
“We are of the conclusion that the original decision to allow the metro car depot for Metro Line 3 to be located at Aarey to be restored could not be possible at the interim stage to stay the decision... It must be also noted that substantial number of trees pertaining to the area which falls within the segment of car depot and the ramp have already been fell and no further trees were required to be fell,” a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha said.
The court also let Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation pursue its application before BMCs Tree Authority for permission to cut 84 trees for construction of Aarey Metro Depot. It asked the authority to consider the plea independently.