Don’t cast the hate for us on to our beloved Mumbai: Aaditya Thackeray on Aarey

Mumbai, July 03: Former Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday urged the new Maharashtra government to consider not moving the Metro-3 car shed project back to Mumbai's Aarey forest.

In a series of tweet, Aaditya posted "Since I have to attend the sitting of the State Legislative Assembly today, I will be missing out on the protest for Aarey Forest and the MMRCL land."

"I humbly urge new Govt to reconsider its decision. Don't cast the hate for us, on to our beloved Mumbai(sic)."

Since I have to attend the sitting of the State Legislative Assembly today, I will be missing out on the protest for Aarey Forest and the MMRCL land.
I humbly urge new Govt to reconsider its decision.
Don’t cast the hate for us, on to our beloved Mumbai. (1/n)

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 3, 2022

"This is about sustainable development and better planning. This is about Mumbai's development and we staying here instead of being handed over a badly planned project that destroys our Mumbai's Aarey Forest (sic)," he added.

Apart from leopards, some 300 different varieties of flora and fauna are found in the Aarey forest, located in suburban Goregaon and adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently directed state Advocate General and the administration to submit a proposal on building the car shed in Aarey Colony, instead of Kanjurmarg which was chosen by the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led state government.

In 2014, the Metro-3 car shed was first proposed at Aarey by then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, which was challenged by local NGO Vanshakti in the Bombay High Court, with a plea to prevent cutting of trees in the area. Fadnavis, who succeeded Chavan, went ahead with the same site. But, green activists had vehemently opposed the cutting of trees in Aarey for the car shed.

After the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance came to power in 2019, the then CM Uddhav Thackeray reversed the decision, shifting the Metro-3 car shed to a site in the Kanjurmarg eastern suburb, but it was embroiled in a legal dispute. The Thackeray government had also declared Aarey as a reserved forest.

On Thursday evening, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Fadnavis, in their first cabinet meeting held hours after coming to power, overturned the previous Thackeray-led government's decision.