Cong environment cell activists protest near Maha CM's Thane house against Metro car shed proposed at Aarey in Mumbai

Activists of the Maharashtra Congress’s environment cell protested near Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s bungalow in Thane city on Sunday against a Metro car shed proposed at Aarey Colony in neighbouring Mumbai. The activists, let by the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee environment cell’s regional president Sameer Vartak, were stopped at Cadbury junction, about 250 metres away from the CM’s residence.

The protesters, including women, carried placards and banners with ”Save Aarey” and other messages and shouted slogans against the Shinde government.

The police took 25 protesters to Wagle Estate police station and later then them off after a warning, a police official said.

No one was detained, he added. Security outside the CM’s residence in Thane was stepped up, the police said.

Environmentalists have been protesting against the Metro-3 car shed project, which the new Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra has proposed to move back to Mumbai’s Aarey forest, an 1,800 acre area which is often termed as the city’s ‘green lung’.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently directed state Advocate General and the administration to submit a proposal on building the car shed in Aarey Colony, instead of Kanjurmarg which was chosen by the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led state government.