The Maharashtra Revenue Department and the Forest Department have given permission for clearing the one-hectare mangrove land between Airoli Bridge and Thane-Belapur road for the construction of the flyover.
The Airoli Bridge to Thane-Belapur flyover will be part of the proposed Airoli to Katai Naka Free Highway. About one hectare of the thorny forest has been cleared by the state forest department for this flyover. Permission has been granted under the deforestation (protection) Act, 1980 to cut down about 0.983 hectares of thorny forest.
Two 1.68 km long tunnels on this highway are an important part of the Thane-Belapur elevated road. Residents of Kalyan and Badlapur areas constantly face heavy traffic on their way to Mumbai.
This free route is going to help reduce this traffic. The work of this free highway was also given the green flag by the Supreme Court. However, the project was stuck with Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray’s environment ministry. With the Thane Municipal Corporation elections scheduled for 2022, the Ministry has given permission on March 12.
Netizens call out the hypocrisy of ‘Aarey Activists’, question their silence over Maharashtra govt’s latest decision to axe Mangrove land
Netizens are asking why environmentalists, who have been making a huge fuss over the construction of the Mumbai Metro 3 car shed, are silent now. Actor Sumit Raghavan has targeted so-called environmentalists.
The 33.5-km underground Metro 3 project connecting Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ, the location for the car-shed was identified as Aarey had become a battleground and a major political issue in 2019, before the Assembly elections in Maharashtra.
CM Uddhav Thackeray had announced that the government had decided to move the car-shed out of Aarey to Kanjurmarg, an eastern suburb.
