BMC tree authority gives nod to cut, transplant 1,992 trees for Coastal Road project

Mumbai: The BMC tree authority on Friday approved a proposal to allow cutting and transplanting of a total of 1,992 trees for the proposed Mumbai Coastal Road project from Versova to Bhayander. Civic officials said of the 1,992 trees affected, 726 will be cut, while 1,266 will be transplanted on a 3.5-acre land owned by the BMC hydraulic engineering department in Powai. The civic body will carry out compensatory plantation of 20,330 trees on a 15-hectare area in Panvel.

“The proposed coastal road project has been divided into six packages. The trees affected are coming in the way of the alignment of the project, where work is set to commence soon, and not all the trees affected by the project have been accounted for in this proposal. We have given a sum of Rs 12 crore to the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM), which will carry out the plantation of trees and also take care of the trees for a period of seven years,” said a civic official.

Tree authority member and corporator Pramod Sawant said, “Development is needed, but you have to ensure that the least number of trees are cut. What is the point of compensatory planting of trees in Panvel? Look at the rise in temperature in the city,” he added.

In the meeting of the authority, BJP leader of house in the BMC Ganesh Khankar suggested that there are about 45,000 housing societies in the city, and each of them should be told to have at least one tree. Citizen groups earlier protested regarding the proposal to fell about 137 trees within the Nana Nani Park at Versova as well as the impact on more than 45,000 mangrove trees, and pointed out that a significant portion of the destruction of mangrove ecosystems is attributable to the design of the interchange structures.