MMRDA not to cut Aarey Colony trees till it gets BMC permission

Terming it premature litigation, the Bombay high court on Thursday disposed of two public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directives to Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) not to cut/transplant 2,298 trees in Aarey Colony at Goregaon for the third phase of the metro railway project.

A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice BP Colabawala, accepted MMRDA's statement that it would not cut these trees until Tree Authority (of the municipal corporation) gave it the required permission.

Though the court did not set any time limit for the corporation to decide on the MMRDA proposal to cut the tress, it allowed petitioners Arun George and NGO Vanshakti to approach the Tree Authority with their objections, if any.

The PIL, in addition to seeking a directive to MMRDA against cutting or transplanting the 2,298 trees, had also sought a directive to MMRDA and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) to carry out a detailed environment impact assessment (EIA) of Metro 3 before undertaking any development activity.

According to the PIL, the third phase of the project involves a fully underground metro line between Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ (Andheri), covering 32.5km with 27 stations along the line. Metro 3 is designed to connect major points of the commercial business districts of Nariman Point and Bandra-Kurla Complex with the domestic and international airports and industrial areas of MIDC and SEEPZ in Andheri.