Over 1,000 trees and plants may have to be relocated from their location or axed altogether, thanks to the construction of Metro Line 6. Senior officials of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) revealed this at a public consultation meeting held on Tuesday for the Metro rail corridor planned from Oshiwara to Vikhroli.
Activists and residents had demanded to know how many trees would be affected due to the project, which runs from Swami Samarth Nagar in Oshiwara to Vikhroli (East), running along the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR).
P.K. Sharma, Project Director, DMRC said 899 trees were identified between Swami Samarth Nagar and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay alone. “From IIT to Eastern Express Highway in Vikhroli, we will have roughly 300 to 400 trees,” he said. Out of the 899, the MMRDA has identified 32 Ashoka trees, 35 peepal trees, 56 peltophorum trees, 14 royal palms, and 25 foxtail palms. Mr. Sharma said they will be jointly holding surveys with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and will transplant as many trees as possible, highlighting the fact that the depot for the corridor is spread across 18 hectares with ample space for tree transplanting.
Residents and activists were furious at the revelation as the number of trees mentioned in the detailed project report of the Metro Corridor cited only 57 trees. Nearly 100 people had gathered for the meeting, the majority of whom called the exercise a farce as work had already started. Elsie Gabriel of the Young Environmentalists Programme Trust demanded to see the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the project. “We want you to share the environmental assessment report, which is the basic of any infrastructure project. We need to know what it contains so that we may then ask questions,” she said. An MMRDA official said a detailed EIA report was under preparation and will incorporate the suggestions being made in the meeting.
Traffic issues
The people present also highlighted the massive traffic snarls on JVLR due to the project and urged the MMRDA to not take up work at the Gandhi Nagar junction near Kanjurmarg till such time that work on Metro Line 4 was completed. The two lines will intersect on the busy junction on L.B.S. Marg, which has seen huge traffic jams due to the barricades for Metro Line 4.
Amrita Bhattacharya of the Aarey Conservation Group said the Western Express Highway had already been ruined due to the Metro Line 7 and that people’s productive time was being wasted due to traffic snarls, as was their health. “Everyday we hear ambulances stuck in the traffic along L.B.S. Marg, which is an arterial road of the city,” said Snehal Basrur, a resident of Kanjurmarg, who also suggested that MMRDA should spray water at the work sites so that dust does not rise during construction. Other suggestions included dividing the work of the line into phases as well as scrapping the elevated metro line for an underground one.
Residents and activists were also miffed at the fact that neither the Metropolitan Commissioner nor the Additional Metropolitan Commissioner from the MMRDA had come for the meeting. Vishram Patil, from the MMRDA, said the minutes of the meeting will be uploaded on the website within a month.
