As thousands of trees face the axe for the construction of the Metro Line 9 car depot at Dongri village in Bhayandar West, a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) did not conduct any Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project. The new site is a shift from the original depot location at Rai village.

Mumbai-based activist Godfrey Pimenta had filed the RTI seeking a copy of the EIA report for the extended portion of Metro Line 9, particularly for the new train maintenance depot in Dongri, Thane district. The response from MMRDA was a single-word reply: “NO.”

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