Pune: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday stayed the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) interim order which had halted work on a proposed portion of the Pune Metro Rail route passing through the Mula-Mutha river.

Earlier this month, on January 2, the Western Zone Bench of the NGT had passed the directive acting on an Environmental Interest Litigation (EIL) filed on May 26 last year. The litigation had contended that the 1.7 km metro rail alignment stretch, passing through the left bank of the Mula-Mutha river, could prove extremely harmful for the riverbank ecosystem along the route.

The petitioners in the EIL included Member of Parliament Anu Aga, senior journalist, the late Dileep Padgaonkar, architect Sarang Yadwadkar and environmentalist Aarti Kirloskar.

To contest the NGT order, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the apex court, arguing that the NGT had no jurisdiction in the matter.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the PMC, bought the civic body’s contention to the notice of the SC Bench headed by Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Prafulla Pant. He said that the tribunal’s interim stay did not hold water, since it does not have jurisdiction in the matter.

The metro rail stretch falls on line 2 of the first phase of the metro. The line is nearly 15 km long and would link Vanaz to Ramwadi.

In September last year, a report by the PMC’s Biodiversity Monitoring Committee had supported the objections in the litigation.