Devendra Fadnavis, the new Maharashtra deputy chief minister, overturned former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to move the Metro 3 car shed out of the Aarey Milk colony and ordered the restart of the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, the flagship water conservation scheme from his previous regime as the CM.
Thackeray, who took over as CM in 2019, had halted construction of the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz metro 3 corridor and formed a committee to look for alternative plots. His government then designated Aarey colony as a reserve forest.
The Maharashtra government and the Centre were legally fighting over a proposed car depot plot in Kanjurmarg, causing the 33-kilometer underground metro project to be delayed. Following protests by activists against construction in one of Mumbai’s few remaining green spaces, the Thackeray government decided to relocate the metro depot out of Aarey colony.
Fadnavis has asked the administration to direct the state’s advocate general that the shed be built in Aarey, sources told CNN-News18.
Thackeray also halted the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan and launched an investigation into the scheme’s alleged irregularities. The drought-proofing scheme, which was Fadnavis’ pet project, was slammed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report, which was presented to the state legislature in September 2020.
The decision to relocate the car shed from Aarey has been a source of contention between the Shiv Sena and its former ally, the BJP.
On November 29, 2019, a day after taking over the state, Thackeray overturned Fadnavis’ decision to build the car shed at Aarey. Several environmentalists in Mumbai had spoken out against the construction of the car shed in Aarey, which is an extension of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and a habitat for leopards and other wildlife. Aaditya Thackeray supported environmentalists who claimed that the car shed would harm Mumbai’s last remaining patch of greenery.
Soon after the MVA government took power, an 804-acre plot of land in Aarey was designated as a reserve forest. The car shed was to be built on a different plot of land in Kanjurmarg.
The Bombay High Court, however, threw a wrench in one of the Thackeray government’s most important decisions by halting construction of the shed in Kanjurmarg until December 2020. Since then, the government has been unable to find a viable alternative for building the car shed.
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