Mumbai’s Metro battles activists, fears, divine fury
Gajanan Khergamker | Mumbai
Even before the storm over the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s (MMRC) taking over 30 hectares of Aarey Colony for its Car Depot settles down, the Aarey Colony CEO says he received an application for nearly 12,000 sq metres of land. This time around, the land sought is on Marol side. And, it’s only a matter of time before this application snowballs into another fresh controversy. The 30 ha of the proposed Car Depot caused enough trouble for the project and the application for 12,000 sq metres about 1.2 ha in all, is set to add fuel to the already-surging fire.
“Ab aur bhagte ayenge…kaam rukaneko (Now, more of them will come here running…to stop work),” says an Aarey tribal from among the 30-odd locals working with MMRC at the Car Depot on the Metro project. They live in the nearby Santosh Nagar, Adivasi Pada, Unit No 22 and Unit No 25 and form a vibrant third of the total 100-odd workers at the Car Depot. Bemused by the highly volatile reaction of ‘Environmentalists’, ‘Activists’ and sections of the Media, which swiftly furthers the ‘development triggering imminent ruin’ line, the locals have been witnessing agitations by political parties, environmentalist lobbies and denizens concerned about the ‘lungs of the city’ at direct risk. Oddly, the locals are the ones who benefit the most from the employment availed and directly from the said zone.
“Ab dekho, itni thodi der mein hi humko kaam kitna mil raha hai. Nahin toh koi bhi poochta nahin hai. Aur ab jab kaam mil raha hai toh sab bhag bhag ke ate hai ki jhad mat kato…kahan kaate hai waise bhi. Ye Depot toh khulle jagah mein hai (Now, we have been getting employment already. Till date, nobody cared for us. And now, they all come rushing down to Aarey hollering don’t cut trees. Where are the trees getting cut for the Depot? It is being created on open land),” says the tribal supervisor on grounds of anonymity.
The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s Mumbai Metro Line - 3 (MML - III) – a key project to improve the transportation scenario in the financial capital of India i.e. Mumbai – has been mired in trouble since the very onset. The 33.5 km long corridor running along Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ is plugged to decongest the traffic situation in Greater Mumbai. Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited is the nodal agency responsible for the implementation of Mumbai Metro Line-III project. Constituted as a Joint Venture (JV) of the Govt. of India (GOI) and the Government of Maharashtra (GOM) on 50:50 sharing basis, the project has been facing flak from myriad quarters.
On August 22, 2014, the State Government handed over 30 ha of land of the total 1,287 ha land in Aarey colony for Metro III Car Depot. While the State claims that only 25 ha area is being used for the Car Depot, which constitutes less than 2 per cent of the total area of Aarey Colony, a conscious attempt has been made to retain the green cover in 5 ha area even within the Car Depot. The said land is surrounded by Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), Goregaon-Powai Link Road (GPLR), and Marol-Maroshi road. The idea being to ease the load of the nearly one lakh vehicles commuting daily.
The Car Depot was proposed at ground level in Aarey and the ramp portion is planned at Sariput Nagar from where the underground Metro comes to ground level for access to Depot. At present, the vehicles coming from Marol towards Aarey use the Marol Maroshi Road. The adjacent Marol Maroshi Road is intersecting with the proposed ramp near the Reliance Energy substation. To maintain the existing vehicular traffic movement, it is proposed to construct an underpass at the intersection location.
“In the name of Metro, the MMRC will take over entire Aarey,” said Malad resident Roger Dias echoing the sentiment of a host of other activists accused of “managing the media to ensure eyeballs,” by local Aarey residents. “They will take over all of Aarey, you see,” warns Dias almost prophetically. His view isn’t in isolation. Almost every second activist in and around Aarey holds the same view sans much basis though.
Metro III is jinxed much like most other ‘development projects’ across the world. Why, even the construction of Eiffel Tower was protested violently at the onset. “We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection... of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower,” had read a petition against the Tower in 1887. Today, the Eiffel Tower is most visited monument, that you must pay for, in the world and attracts almost seven million visitors every year.
Shabana, Sena Mayor Express Concern
Not to be left behind, actress and social worker Shabana Azmi pooled in her support and urged the authorities to “avoid cutting trees in Aarey Forest in Mumbai to build a metro car shed”. She tweeted to persuade people to raise their voice against the deforestation of 3,500 trees.
“Aarey forest is the lung forest for Mumbai. 3500 trees in Aarey forest will be cut to build a Metro car shed if we don't raise our voice. Ask CM Devendra Fadnavis and Ashwini Bhide, MD of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation to look for alternatives,” she said putting her weight behind the environmentalist lobby.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air pollution should serve as a lesson and the metro car shed must be moved out of Aarey colony, offered Mumbai mayor Vishvanath Mahadeshwar. The Shiv Sena has continued to maintain it is opposed to the Metro car shed and even rejected it in the draft Development Plan - 2034 marking all of Aarey as a green zone but Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who heads the urban development department, has overruled it.
Mahadeshwar maintained that “Shiv Sena was not opposed to the metro project. However, our concern is about the cutting of trees for the construction of the metro car shed which we are opposed to. Aarey is a green zone and must be maintained as such if Mumbaikars are to live a healthy life and not be prone to respiratory diseases.” He said that there was a need to approach the issue as a humanitarian problem. By 2038, Mumbai will be susceptible to a host of diseases, he offered and “the Metro Car Shed must be moved out.”
Metro Will Trigger Chaos, Ruin, Feel Parsis
So, the Metro-III project even had members of the Parsi community simmering with anger. They feared that the underground corridor would pass below some of their ancient and most revered fire temples in south Mumbai and could damage them. And, despite assurances by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation officials maintaining that protocol would be followed and assuring that the structures would not be affected, the Parsis weren’t convinced.
The third phase of Mumbai’s Metro network is set to pass under some of the oldest parts of SoBo and the tunnel run close to two sacred Zoroastrian fire temples. It looked like the 45,000-odd Zoroastrian or Parsi community would have fought the Metro tooth and nail despite assurance from the MMRC authorities and the state alike.
However, Firoz Kotwal, who presided for several decades over the Wadia Atash Behram temple in question, was content with the explanations. Convinced with the proof offered by the MMRC team and a personal assurance by the Chief Minister, Kotwal said that the hue and cry was “baseless” and neither Zoroastrianism nor its rituals were “in any danger from the Metro tunnel.” Kotwal offered that the “mystic circuits” cited in the petition were not a part of the ancient texts of Zoroastrianism in its sixth-century incarnation but had been introduced by the 19th-century Kshnum cult.
Why, even Khurshed Dastur, the high priest of Zoroastrianism’s holiest shrine at Udvada in neighbouring Gujarat and the community’s representative in the secular National Commission for Minorities shot down the fears saying, “It is the work of a minuscule group with nothing better to do.”
Khurshed said he visited the MMRC office and they showed him “films and documents for hours” and reassured him the tunnel will be passing under the washing area of the temple, and not the sacred sanctorum. “It is in no way touching the main Aatash Behram area,” he added quelling popular fears.
Railways Buckling Under Pressure
That India’s financial capital needs the new Metro to help bolster its swiftly buckling public transport system is a given. The city’s local train network commutes seven and half million passengers each ‘day’ – more than even the ‘record seven million’ that pays to visits Eiffel Tower every ‘year’. It may be recalled that in September last, 22 persons died in a stampede on a foot-over bridge at Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road Station underlining the need for an alternative transport system.
Metro III has been riddled with controversy in sharp contrast to the first two phases that were relatively uncontroversial. Phase 1, managed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and a joint venture between Reliance Infrastructure, the French company Veolia and the Maharashtra government, is an 11.5 km elevated railway opened in 2013. The line is fully elevated and consists of 12 stations from Versova to Ghatkopar. Phase 2 is a 40 km elevated suburban train line that is currently half-built.
Just the third phase is underground and passes under South Mumbai whose tolerance for intrusive Metro construction is lower than the rest of the city. Very few of SoBo’s residents need to use the Metro rendering most construction prone to protests. That apart, the stakes for approval of this phase, are high: In all, a $3.5 bn partnership between the Indian government and the state of Maharashtra, with loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and hefty contracts for Indian agencies, as well as Chinese and Turkish infrastructure entities.
It may be recalled that in May 2017, the Supreme Court disposed of the special leave petition filed by a Mumbai resident against the lifting of a stay on tree cutting for the Metro III project (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) by the Bombay High Court. The Court directed the petitioner to approach a two-member HC committee with their grievances.
The High Court vacated its stay on cutting trees for the Metro-III construction while observing that a balance needs to be struck between developmental activities and preserving the environment. SoBo resident and petitioner Nina Verma had sought a special leave petition in the Supreme Court on May 8, challenging the HC order.
For a state to develop to meet needs of population and surge in their demands, there should be an equitable surge in alternatives provided. While a rail service met demands in the last century, the need for an underground Metro and overhead alternatives is felt more now than ever. The existing transport systems have been burgeoning at its seams risking the very population it aims to serve.
A fine balance will have to be met between retaining dwindling natural resources in a swiftly-growing Mumbai and offering technological advancements through modern transport options like the underground Metro. Mumbai is the only city in the world to house a 104 sq km large Sanjay Gandhi National Park in its midst. Considering 88 per cent of Mumbai’s commuters use public transport and the Mumbai Suburban Railways carry more than 7.5 million commuters every day in the city, the need for an alternative is real and felt hard.
Resisting the construction of Metro III blindly is detrimental to the very wont of Mumbai which thrives even amidst opposition. Almost as a rule, those opposing the Metro have little to do with tackling the ordeals of urban commuting or living amidst the natural resources they fear damaging. But, popular fears will have to be quelled along the way. However unreal!
Support The Draft by sharing this story.
Even before the storm over the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s (MMRC) taking over 30 hectares of Aarey Colony for its Car Depot settles down, the Aarey Colony CEO says he received an application for nearly 12,000 sq metres of land. This time around, the land sought is on Marol side. And, it’s only a matter of time before this application snowballs into another fresh controversy. The 30 ha of the proposed Car Depot caused enough trouble for the project and the application for 12,000 sq metres about 1.2 ha in all, is set to add fuel to the already-surging fire.
“Ab aur bhagte ayenge…kaam rukaneko (Now, more of them will come here running…to stop work),” says an Aarey tribal from among the 30-odd locals working with MMRC at the Car Depot on the Metro project. They live in the nearby Santosh Nagar, Adivasi Pada, Unit No 22 and Unit No 25 and form a vibrant third of the total 100-odd workers at the Car Depot. Bemused by the highly volatile reaction of ‘Environmentalists’, ‘Activists’ and sections of the Media, which swiftly furthers the ‘development triggering imminent ruin’ line, the locals have been witnessing agitations by political parties, environmentalist lobbies and denizens concerned about the ‘lungs of the city’ at direct risk. Oddly, the locals are the ones who benefit the most from the employment availed and directly from the said zone.
“Ab dekho, itni thodi der mein hi humko kaam kitna mil raha hai. Nahin toh koi bhi poochta nahin hai. Aur ab jab kaam mil raha hai toh sab bhag bhag ke ate hai ki jhad mat kato…kahan kaate hai waise bhi. Ye Depot toh khulle jagah mein hai (Now, we have been getting employment already. Till date, nobody cared for us. And now, they all come rushing down to Aarey hollering don’t cut trees. Where are the trees getting cut for the Depot? It is being created on open land),” says the tribal supervisor on grounds of anonymity.
The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s Mumbai Metro Line - 3 (MML - III) – a key project to improve the transportation scenario in the financial capital of India i.e. Mumbai – has been mired in trouble since the very onset. The 33.5 km long corridor running along Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ is plugged to decongest the traffic situation in Greater Mumbai. Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited is the nodal agency responsible for the implementation of Mumbai Metro Line-III project. Constituted as a Joint Venture (JV) of the Govt. of India (GOI) and the Government of Maharashtra (GOM) on 50:50 sharing basis, the project has been facing flak from myriad quarters.
On August 22, 2014, the State Government handed over 30 ha of land of the total 1,287 ha land in Aarey colony for Metro III Car Depot. While the State claims that only 25 ha area is being used for the Car Depot, which constitutes less than 2 per cent of the total area of Aarey Colony, a conscious attempt has been made to retain the green cover in 5 ha area even within the Car Depot. The said land is surrounded by Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), Goregaon-Powai Link Road (GPLR), and Marol-Maroshi road. The idea being to ease the load of the nearly one lakh vehicles commuting daily.
The Car Depot was proposed at ground level in Aarey and the ramp portion is planned at Sariput Nagar from where the underground Metro comes to ground level for access to Depot. At present, the vehicles coming from Marol towards Aarey use the Marol Maroshi Road. The adjacent Marol Maroshi Road is intersecting with the proposed ramp near the Reliance Energy substation. To maintain the existing vehicular traffic movement, it is proposed to construct an underpass at the intersection location.
The popular fear of most environment activists being that once the Metro comes inside Aarey, the construction of infrastructure, wider roads and other things will be inevitable.
“In the name of Metro, the MMRC will take over entire Aarey,” said Malad resident Roger Dias echoing the sentiment of a host of other activists accused of “managing the media to ensure eyeballs,” by local Aarey residents. “They will take over all of Aarey, you see,” warns Dias almost prophetically. His view isn’t in isolation. Almost every second activist in and around Aarey holds the same view sans much basis though.
Metro III is jinxed much like most other ‘development projects’ across the world. Why, even the construction of Eiffel Tower was protested violently at the onset. “We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection... of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower,” had read a petition against the Tower in 1887. Today, the Eiffel Tower is most visited monument, that you must pay for, in the world and attracts almost seven million visitors every year.
Shabana, Sena Mayor Express Concern
Not to be left behind, actress and social worker Shabana Azmi pooled in her support and urged the authorities to “avoid cutting trees in Aarey Forest in Mumbai to build a metro car shed”. She tweeted to persuade people to raise their voice against the deforestation of 3,500 trees.
“Aarey forest is the lung forest for Mumbai. 3500 trees in Aarey forest will be cut to build a Metro car shed if we don't raise our voice. Ask CM Devendra Fadnavis and Ashwini Bhide, MD of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation to look for alternatives,” she said putting her weight behind the environmentalist lobby.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air pollution should serve as a lesson and the metro car shed must be moved out of Aarey colony, offered Mumbai mayor Vishvanath Mahadeshwar. The Shiv Sena has continued to maintain it is opposed to the Metro car shed and even rejected it in the draft Development Plan - 2034 marking all of Aarey as a green zone but Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who heads the urban development department, has overruled it.
Mahadeshwar maintained that “Shiv Sena was not opposed to the metro project. However, our concern is about the cutting of trees for the construction of the metro car shed which we are opposed to. Aarey is a green zone and must be maintained as such if Mumbaikars are to live a healthy life and not be prone to respiratory diseases.” He said that there was a need to approach the issue as a humanitarian problem. By 2038, Mumbai will be susceptible to a host of diseases, he offered and “the Metro Car Shed must be moved out.”
Metro Will Trigger Chaos, Ruin, Feel Parsis
So, the Metro-III project even had members of the Parsi community simmering with anger. They feared that the underground corridor would pass below some of their ancient and most revered fire temples in south Mumbai and could damage them. And, despite assurances by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation officials maintaining that protocol would be followed and assuring that the structures would not be affected, the Parsis weren’t convinced.
In October last, a petition sent to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi claimed the Metro, if built, would “breach the magnetic circuits” of two Zoroastrian fire temples, thereby “diminishing their spiritual powers” and unleashing “dark forces”. Signed by 11,000 people, the petition concluded the temples being “living, vibrant ... intermediaries between God and mankind” as they are, if these “holy fires are defiled, the backlash from nature will not spare those responsible.”
The third phase of Mumbai’s Metro network is set to pass under some of the oldest parts of SoBo and the tunnel run close to two sacred Zoroastrian fire temples. It looked like the 45,000-odd Zoroastrian or Parsi community would have fought the Metro tooth and nail despite assurance from the MMRC authorities and the state alike.
However, Firoz Kotwal, who presided for several decades over the Wadia Atash Behram temple in question, was content with the explanations. Convinced with the proof offered by the MMRC team and a personal assurance by the Chief Minister, Kotwal said that the hue and cry was “baseless” and neither Zoroastrianism nor its rituals were “in any danger from the Metro tunnel.” Kotwal offered that the “mystic circuits” cited in the petition were not a part of the ancient texts of Zoroastrianism in its sixth-century incarnation but had been introduced by the 19th-century Kshnum cult.
Why, even Khurshed Dastur, the high priest of Zoroastrianism’s holiest shrine at Udvada in neighbouring Gujarat and the community’s representative in the secular National Commission for Minorities shot down the fears saying, “It is the work of a minuscule group with nothing better to do.”
Khurshed said he visited the MMRC office and they showed him “films and documents for hours” and reassured him the tunnel will be passing under the washing area of the temple, and not the sacred sanctorum. “It is in no way touching the main Aatash Behram area,” he added quelling popular fears.
Railways Buckling Under Pressure
That India’s financial capital needs the new Metro to help bolster its swiftly buckling public transport system is a given. The city’s local train network commutes seven and half million passengers each ‘day’ – more than even the ‘record seven million’ that pays to visits Eiffel Tower every ‘year’. It may be recalled that in September last, 22 persons died in a stampede on a foot-over bridge at Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road Station underlining the need for an alternative transport system.
Metro III has been riddled with controversy in sharp contrast to the first two phases that were relatively uncontroversial. Phase 1, managed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and a joint venture between Reliance Infrastructure, the French company Veolia and the Maharashtra government, is an 11.5 km elevated railway opened in 2013. The line is fully elevated and consists of 12 stations from Versova to Ghatkopar. Phase 2 is a 40 km elevated suburban train line that is currently half-built.
Just the third phase is underground and passes under South Mumbai whose tolerance for intrusive Metro construction is lower than the rest of the city. Very few of SoBo’s residents need to use the Metro rendering most construction prone to protests. That apart, the stakes for approval of this phase, are high: In all, a $3.5 bn partnership between the Indian government and the state of Maharashtra, with loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and hefty contracts for Indian agencies, as well as Chinese and Turkish infrastructure entities.
It may be recalled that in May 2017, the Supreme Court disposed of the special leave petition filed by a Mumbai resident against the lifting of a stay on tree cutting for the Metro III project (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) by the Bombay High Court. The Court directed the petitioner to approach a two-member HC committee with their grievances.
The High Court vacated its stay on cutting trees for the Metro-III construction while observing that a balance needs to be struck between developmental activities and preserving the environment. SoBo resident and petitioner Nina Verma had sought a special leave petition in the Supreme Court on May 8, challenging the HC order.
For a state to develop to meet needs of population and surge in their demands, there should be an equitable surge in alternatives provided. While a rail service met demands in the last century, the need for an underground Metro and overhead alternatives is felt more now than ever. The existing transport systems have been burgeoning at its seams risking the very population it aims to serve.
A fine balance will have to be met between retaining dwindling natural resources in a swiftly-growing Mumbai and offering technological advancements through modern transport options like the underground Metro. Mumbai is the only city in the world to house a 104 sq km large Sanjay Gandhi National Park in its midst. Considering 88 per cent of Mumbai’s commuters use public transport and the Mumbai Suburban Railways carry more than 7.5 million commuters every day in the city, the need for an alternative is real and felt hard.
Resisting the construction of Metro III blindly is detrimental to the very wont of Mumbai which thrives even amidst opposition. Almost as a rule, those opposing the Metro have little to do with tackling the ordeals of urban commuting or living amidst the natural resources they fear damaging. But, popular fears will have to be quelled along the way. However unreal!
Support The Draft by sharing this story.
