Mumbai: MMRDA to cut mangroves on 1 hectare for Metro station

Environmentalists, however, have raised objection to the clearance and said despite adequate land available for building the station, the mangroves are being cut. “The non-mangrove wetland areas in the region were earlier handed over to private developers and now they are going after mangrove areas too. The BEST depot and truck terminal in Wadala have more than adequate space where a station can come up. This is completely unnecessary in our opinion,” environmentalist D Stalin of NGO Vanashakti said.

Activist Zoru Bhathena also questioned the MMRDA’s plan to cut mangroves on the entire one-hectare plot, saying that cutting off mangroves where the piers were to be erected would have sufficed. “To cut trees on a one-hectare plot for an elevated station is completely wrong when only mangroves around the piers/pillars need to be cut. That will help save a large number of mangroves,” Bhathena said.

Mumbai Metro Line 4 from Wadala to Kasarvadavali is a 32-km-long elevated corridor with 32 stations. The Rs 14,500-crore project is expected to provide interconnectivity among the existing Eastern Express Roadway, Central Railway, Monorail, and the ongoing Metro lines.