Mira-Bhayandar Signature Drive: Over 15,000 Sign Petition To Protest Against Tree Axing For Metro-9 Car Shed In Uttan

Mira-Bhayandar: The signature drive launched by nature lovers, activists, environmentalist and social organizations to protest the proposal of axing nearly 14,400 trees to pave way for the construction of the car shed for the Metro-9 rail corridor in Uttan is receiving an overwhelming response from citizens.

Apart from a door-to-door campaign, booths and tables have been set up at strategic locations having a high footfall across the twin-city, where citizens are eagerly stepping ahead to ink their signatures on the petition. More than 15,000 signatures have been collected in the first two days of the drive which will continue till Sunday (4, March).

Encouraged by this overwhelming and spontaneous support, the organisers expressed hope that the number of signatures collected will exceed 50,000.

“The response to the drive is overwhelming. The petition supported with the list of signatures will be submitted to the state government authorities and we are hopeful that the proposal of axing 12,400 trees is rolled back.” said environmentalist- Dhiraj Parab. Several social organisations have rolled up their sleeves to knock judicial doors against the unmindful move which will definitely cause irreparable damage to the environment.

“Axing of trees has numerous negative consequences on the environment including- habitat loss for wildlife, increased greenhouse gas emissions leading to climate change. We strongly object to the move.” said a resident of Uttan who signed the petition.

An extension of Metro 7 (Andheri East to Dahisar East), the Metro-9 is a 13.581 km route, including 11.386 km elevated corridor for which the car shed was earlier planned to be constructed near Rai village but was later shifted to government-owned vacant land parcels in Dongri, following a stiff resistance by locals.

However, it has been alleged that the shifting was planned on the behest of the powerful builder lobby. A two-phase proposal has been submitted to the MBMC by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for cutting 2,500 and 9,900 trees.

However, the planning authority has maintained that 3,716 trees will be axed while 7,590 and 1,094 would be transplanted and retained respectively. Apart from fearing an eco-disaster, citizens contended that the relocation of the car shed site from Rai to Uttan will put an additional multi-crore burden on the state exchequer.