Belapur residents form human chain to protest Kharghar-Nerul Coastal Road

Belapur residents on Sunday protested against the coastal road

A large number of residents and activists formed a human chain in Belapur on Sunday morning to protest against the Kharghar-Nerul coastal road that will pass through the green belt along the Panvel creek.

Holding banners and placards, the protesters sought to send a message to CIDCO and the government that the vast stretch of green zone, created with painstaking and voluntary efforts by the residents themselves, should not be destroyed under the guise of the coastal road.

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Activist Shubhangi Tirodkar, who has been staying in Sector 15 for about a decade, said it is disheartening to know that our green belt will be turned into a busy concrete road in what is otherwise a very peaceful area.

NatConnect Foundation director B.N. Kumar has written to the Chief Minister questioning the need for this "white elephant" called the coastal road from Kharghar, which already has wide roads. Moreover, Kharghar and Belapur are well connected by service road, suburban train, and metro services, and there is hardly any traffic to Nerul Jetty, which is anyway defunct, Kumar said.

There are many other ways to improve connectivity, such as linking the road between the upcoming airport and the creek with Kharghar road by an underpass or flyover at the Sion-Panvel highway, NatConnect said.

BJP leader and former standing committee chairperson Netra Shirke, who supported the human chain, said Belapur's Sector 15 green belt was created as part of the ‘one-time development' envisaged by MLA Ganesh Naik.

It is horrendous to see biodiversity being destroyed by a project that is not required at all, Shirke said.

Rekha Sankhala from the Save Flamingos and Mangroves forum regretted that CIDCO has lost all respect for the environment.