Proposal to widen NH-17 rejected

The ministry of environment and forest has rejected the state government’s proposal to widen the national highway 17 (NH-17) which connects Mumbai and Goa. The ministry said that widening the highway to four lanes will eat up space in the Karnala bird sanctuary.

The sanctuary is already under pressure due to illegal grazing and encroachments.

The state wildlife advisory board had approved the proposal on February 20 last year despite strong protests.

Sources said that they were not surprised that the proposal was shot down. “It wasn’t easy to get the approval for the project,” said an official from the forest department. “The National Tiger Conservation Authority is strongly opposing a similar proposal about the widening of national highway 7 that cuts through Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.”

The sate forest department had already made it clear that they did not support the proposal. However, despite the strong opposition, the state government had forwarded the proposal to the ministry.

“This is a good decision taken by the ministry. There is already heavy traffic on the Mumbai-Goa highway and the widening would have increased it further,” said environmentalist Debi Goenka.