BMC claims it had already finalised a contractor with an estimated cost of Rs 1.11 crore to plant 8,100 bamboo trees
Spot along Bhandup Eastern Express Highway selected by BMC for bamboo plantation
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plan to plant bamboo trees along both sides of the Eastern Express Highway from Bhandup to Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli has been put on hold after there was no affirmative response from the salt commissioner.
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According to the BMC, they had already finalised a contractor with an estimated cost of Rs 1.11 crore to plant 8,100 bamboo trees. Officials aware of the development said they are now planning to plant bamboo trees with other existing trees along the roads, gardens and open spaces.
The BMC had adopted the idea of bamboo plantations under the Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Urban Greening Project, and had also mentioned in its 2024–25 budget that the corporation plans to plant around 5 lakh bamboo trees.
“There should be at least a two-metre distance between plants, and going with that, it will need at least 5 lakh square metres of land in the city, which is impossible,” said a BMC official. Chief minister Eknath Shinde had initiated the idea of planting bamboo trees on 10,000 hectares of land across the state in January this year during the Environmental Sustainability Summit in Mumbai.
“The land is deserted along both sides of the Eastern Express Highway. After plantations, the sites would have looked attractive. We hardly needed one to two metres of land along the footpaths on the service roads for plantation, but the BMC has not received any affirmative response from the salt commissioner,” said an official from the Garden department.
The ideal season to plant bamboo trees is before the monsoon, as it requires more water. Officials said that bamboo emits 35 per cent more oxygen compared to other trees. This is a great way to reduce the carbon footprint. Also, bamboo is a low-maintenance plant compared to others and is a fast-growing species, the official added.
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