Mumbai Cong stages protest against Metro car shed at Aarey

Workers and leaders of the Mumbai Congress on Thursday staged a demonstration at Aarey Colony to protest against the Eknath Shinde governments decision to relocate the Metro car shed project to the forested area in the city.The partys city unit chief Bhai Jagtap, who led the protest, rubbished Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis claim that the state government stands to lose Rs 5,000 crore if the car shed is taken out of Aarey and termed it as baseless.

Workers and leaders of the Mumbai Congress on Thursday staged a demonstration at Aarey Colony to protest against the Eknath Shinde government's decision to relocate the Metro car shed project to the forested area in the city.

The party's city unit chief Bhai Jagtap, who led the protest, rubbished Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' claim that the state government stands to lose Rs 5,000 crore if the car shed is taken out of Aarey and termed it as ''baseless''. Hours after coming to power last week, Chief Minister Shinde overturned the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government's decision to relocate the proposed Mumbai Metro Line-3 car shed from Aarey Colony.

The Thackeray government had shifted the site to Kanjurmarg, but it got embroiled in a legal dispute.

''Fadnavis' claim that the state government stands to lose Rs 5,000 crore if the car shed is taken out of Aarey is baseless. Instead, if the project is set up at Kanjurmarg, environment experts say that the state government will gain Rs 1,200 crore,'' Jagtap said.

The Aarey forest area is Mumbai's lungs, he said, claiming that the state government wants to give the 1,003-acre land at Kanjurmarg to builders.

''When Fadnavis was the chief minister, he had earmarked 33 acres for the car shed and destroyed 2,200 trees. Of the 1,003-acre land in Kanjurmarg, 600 acre belongs to the state government and rest to the Centre. But the government wants to hand over the entire land to builders. This is a big conspiracy,'' Jagtap alleged.