Aarey

Mumbai fixated on building expensive metros to ease commuting woes https://frontline.thehindu.com/columns/mumbai-fixated-on-building-expensive-metros-to-ease-commuting-woes/article65778584.ece Debi Goenka Aug 29, 2022 https://newsbigly.com/mumbai-fixated-on-constructing-costly-metros-to-ease-commuting-woes/ At one time Mumbai had two of the perfect transport techniques on this planet: its suburban prepare system and its bus transport system.
No effort was made to develop or improve them as the town grew.
As an alternative, the powers that be are stepping into for metro rail initiatives, that are costly. 

Maharashtra: Fadnavis gets back at Aarey with a vengenace https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/maharashtra-fadnavis-gets-back-at-aarey-with-a-vengenace 02 Jul 2022
If the Aarey project goes through, one of the last green spaces in Mumbai will disappear, causing irreparable environmental damage .. the new cabinet’s first decision was to revoke the protection offered to the Aarey Forest as a no-development zone by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government it displaced. ..The 2014-19 Fadnavis government’s very last act in office was to cut down trees in the Aarey forest to make way for a Metro car shed. The cutting down of trees happened sur..

Debi Goenka, another environmentalist, wonders at Fadnavis’ obsession with the Metro project. He points to the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal’s statement that by 2020 South Mumbai in its entirety would be under water because of the excavation undertaken in Marine Lines.

Much of south Mumbai sits on land reclaimed from the sea and disturbing the equilibrium underground could prove dangerous for the city, he warns.

“Rather than the metro, improving the quality and frequency of suburban rail services would have been a better option,” Goenka says, charging Fadnavis with making this car shed a prestige issue rather than a decision based on facts and public consultations with geological and ecological factors taken into consideration.

reptitiously in the dark of the night to prevent environmental activists from getting wind of the destruction or giving them time to bring about a court stay on the project. 

https://tfipost.com/2019/10/dear-aarey-activists-powai-sez-royal-palms-and-the-film-city-were-forests-once-shouldnt-we-jcb-them/

Dear Aarey Activists: Powai SEZ, Royal Palms and the Film City were forests once. Shouldn’t we JCB them?
Yash Joshiby Yash Joshi6 October 2019

https://tfipost.com/2019/09/aarey-bollywood-breaking-india-forces-and-fake-environmentalists-have-joined-hands-to-starve-mumbai-of-space/

Aarey: Bollywood, Breaking India Forces and Fake environmentalists have joined hands to starve Mumbai of space Shubhangi Sharmaby Shubhangi Sharma20 September 2019

Protest and Signature Campaign against the destruction of Aarey Forest in Mankhurd, Mumbai 22nd July 2022

https://www.facebook.com/112288804871403/posts/pfbid03hvSiaEu1JsTg22bApeNoH7ce6SmdKts8LzTBnCmM6w4znZkjd2uymA1WcwuPYyFl/

Dr. Pooja from Progressive Doctor's League, a constituent organization of SAJAC. said that the forest was also a source of origin for two important rivers - Mithi and Oshiwara and that the metro project was in the cachement area of these rivers. Allowing the project to proceed will disrupt the hydrological process as well as drainage patterns in the region and have a disastrous effect on the ecological life of the city. 

Avinash from Disha Students Organization, constituent organization of SAJAC, appealed to the people to have faith in their unity and to not let any political party hijack their movement

Baban Thoke from SAJAC said that the metro car shed was an excuse to hand over the pristine Aarey to various capitalists, builders and developers. He said that the state has openly declared that commercial activities will be starting on car shed land along with the metro and that even more trees will be cut for this purpose in the future.

https://www.facebook.com/saveaareyJAC

Sanjiv in Whats app: 26-7-2022

Yesterday under the excuse of trimming trees deputy cm of #Maharashtra locked up #aarey misused @mumbaipolice force called sec 144 brought jcb excavator machines and stated killing trees inside metro car shed jungle. He said he doesnt need to remove trees. Now he will say these trees had never existed. because Supreme Court order prohibiting tree cutting is still in force. The dy. CM claims he cut 2100 trees in 2019, and whatever needed to have been cut has already been cut, but this was a lie. the trees have been seen standing there for the last 3 years. In reality he managed to cut max 200-300 trees before the supreme court stopped him in the middle of cutting.

Yesterday's full drama was a distraction to push these tree killers into the jungle and start the deforestation. So greedy for Rs 60,000 crores in real estate. Whoever came to question them was illegally detained by police without any charges

'Metro depot a Rs 60,000-crore land scam, Aarey plot was ecozone' Times  Jul 16, 2022, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/metro-depot-a-rs-60000-crore-land-scam-aarey-plot-was-ecozone/articleshow/92910190.cms

Fadnavis had directed that the areas for Metro depot be termed as 'depot & allied activities', with 'allied activities' to mean commercial development, but this was not to be revealed till necessary later," said Bhathena, who is a member of the ACG,

Activist D Stalin said about 250 acres between the Kanjurmarg and Aarey plots could be used for commercial development worth at least Rs 60,000 crore. "But considering the available FSI, the plot areas and the current ready reckoner rates, the monetary potential could touch Rs 1 lakh crore."

"The new design would be insufficient to cater to the needs of line 3 and this was red flagged by the Sanjay Kumar committee in January 2021. This raises doubts about claims of saving the 13-acre area or the claim that no more land in Aarey would be touched. The depot would inevitably need to expand and use up more areas in Aarey," ACG said in a release.