Mumbai: 452 trees to be hacked to make way for Coastal Road work

The coastal road project construction in South Mumbai

We've come bearing bad news for nature lovers. Almost 452 fully-grown trees coming in the way of proposed road connecting the Coastal Road at Worli to Sewri leading to the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link will be cut. Activist Godfrey Pimenta has written to the Chief Minister, requesting that this be stopped.

In a bid to save these trees from being cut, Pimenta of NGO Watchdog Foundation has written to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), Gardens Department of BMC, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Secretary of Maharashtra and Secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forest & Climate Change.

Another healthy tree to be hacked; notice pasted on one fully grown healthy tree

The letter reads: "This has reference to the recent notices pasted on 452 fully-grown trees coming in way of proposed road connecting Coastal Road at Worli to Sewri leading to Mumbai Trans Harbour Link. Due to the proposed construction of the Connector Road, 452 fully-grown trees will be hacked to death. Please see one such attached notice pasted on one fully grown healthy tree."

In his letter, Pimenta pointed out that over the past two decades, Mumbai has been declining rapidly on the dimensions of both economic growth and quality of life, particularly the rapid environmental destruction. "The quality of life in Mumbai has also worsened and the decline is quite steep. The situation is likely to worsen over the next decade with an expected population increase of over two million," the letter adds, objecting to the proposal.

Work in progress

About 30 per cent of the coastal road work has been completed. Moreover, 90 per cent of the reclamation work is also complete and 68 per cent of the sea wall is done. It is the tunnel work which is far from completion. But, the civic officials said that the work continues uninterrupted day and night. The work on the project had commenced in 2018, but was delayed. The entire project is to cost the civic body about Rs 12,000 crore.

452
No. of fully grown trees to be hacked

163
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