The city might lose another 900 to 1,000 trees in the Aarey Colony area of Goregoan (East) once the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation starts work on the Goregaon Mulund Link Road (GMLR) in that patch. The civic body has, however, assured that the trees will be replanted.
The news has not gone down well with tree activists though, who said the trees will eventually die. Kaustubh Darves, a tree activist, said, "Contractors do not replant the trees the way they should be done. Even if they are replanted, their survival rate has been very low. It's unlikely that so many trees will survive, once they are cut."
Last month, the BMC successfully replanted six trees which fell due to the rains.
The GMLR is a separate project of the BMC and isn't a part of its master plan on roads. It has been estimated at Rs1,000 crore. The Aarey Colony road was recently acquired by the BMC from the state government for the project. The road will connect the Western Express Highway with eastern suburbs, such as Bhandup, Mankhurd and Mulund.
The 16km-long GMLR will have six lanes, of which work will first start on two lanes. A consultant has been appointed for studying the project. Only after they submit a report on that, tenders will be floated. At the Aarey road-Marol road junction, there will be a 6.46km-long elevated road.
"The road is expected to be completed in the next four years. We will not face many hurdles, as there are only a few PAPs (project-affected people) who will have to be rehabilitated," said additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas.
What is the master plan?
The master plan on roads, which will be implemented over a period of three years, will ensure a proper planning of all the major and minor roads in the city. The total length of Mumbai's roads is 1941.16km. The total cost of the master plan has been estimated at Rs7,700 crore, and Rs2,500 crore will be spent every year. As per the plan, Rs4,200 crore will be spent on asphalt roads and Rs3,552 crore on cement concrete roads
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