Mumbai Metro faces ire of Parsi community for drilling along fire temples

For Mumbai Metro, the ongoing expansion work has met with a roadblock and this time it is not a physical structure but an emotional block belong to the corporate capital’s Parsi community, which has come out to protest against Metro Line 3. The community has stated that the work would desecrate two of their holy fire temples along its alignment.
 
The Parsi community, which gave the country many know businessmen and philanthropists, is up in arms against Mumbai Metro's line 3 being drilled along the boundaries of the two Atash Behrams, the highest grade of fire temples in Zoroastrianism, hurting the religious sentiments of this minuscule minority community.
 
According to a LiveMint report, as many as 1,000 members of the Parsi/Irani Zoroastrian community congregated at Patkar Hall near Churchgate on June 8, 2018 in support of a lawsuit against Mumbai Metro Rail Corp. Ltd (MMRCL), stating that the tunnels would desecrate the fire temples and possibly dry up the wells in their premises.
 
As their efforts to persuade authorities to change the course of the Metro Line 3 failed, about 70,000 members of the community from across the country, of which 40,000 is believed to be in Mumbai, petitioned the Bombay high court to realign the tunnels.
 
The Bombay high court in its ad-interim order reportedly asked MMRCL to hear the concerns and suggestions of the petitioners and the architect nominated by them along with the trustees of the two fire-temples and their high priests. Hearing the petition on 23 May, the court had also accepted MMRCL’s undertaking that it shall not carry out drilling work beyond the boundaries of the two Atash Behrams until 14 June 2018, when the court will hear the matter again, said the Mint report.
 
“The matter is sub-judice; so, I can’t comment. But the meeting did take place. The committee will soon be submitting its report to the court,” Ashwini Bhide, managing director, MMRCL, told Mint.
 
Jamshed Sukhadwalla, a 72-year-old Zoroastrian, a structural engineer, who along with four other petitioners, had filed the petition in the high court. 

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MMRCL, a joint venture of the state and central governments, is building Mumbai Metro Line 3 that would connect Colaba in South Mumbai via Bandra to Seepz, a special economic zone in the northern part of the city.