Politicians to plant 9,000 trees for the 3,000 hacked over Metro 4 work

Political party workers plant some trees on Monday

With plans announced to hack 3,000 trees for the Thane Metro, local politicians have pledged to plant 9,000 trees in compensation over one year. NCP officials have decided to plant the trees across Thane city. On the occasion of the party"s foundation day, corporators and MLAs joined hands and planted the first 100 trees on Monday.

Construction of the 32.32-km long Wadala-Ghatkopar-Thane-Kasarvadavali Metro line will lead to the cutting or relocation of 3,136 trees. At least 11.5 km comes under the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) jurisdiction and 21 km lies in Mumbai. The officer said MMRDA was in talks with TMC officials to find a suitable place to replant the trees.

TMC PRO Sndip Malvi said, "There are almost 15 spots in Thane city and the entire district where we can plant trees. We will be taking the help of the forest department and start planting and replanting work soon."

Meanwhile, NCP workers are in a hurry to plant these trees before TMC. NCP leader Anand Paranjpe said, "We planted 100 trees on Monday inside the forest land of Ayyappa mandir."

MLA Jitendra Awhad planted the trees along with 50 party workers. The forest department will give us two-three more places to plant the remaining trees.

The authorities will make plans this year and planting them will happen in another year. That's why we are taking the initiative to plant the trees ourselves. The government can"t just ruin the environment to build infrastructure."

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