The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on October 27 a fresh plea of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seeking nod to fell more trees for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project subject to compensatory afforestation, reported the PTI.
The top court had permitted the civic body`s tree authority to allow felling of 95 trees for the project on August 14.
According to the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Vipul M Pancholi is scheduled to hear the plea on Monday when the top court resumes working after Diwali vacation, as per the PTI.
The plea was mentioned for urgent listing by the counsel for the civic body on October 16 before the CJI-led bench and it was urged that more trees are needed to be felled.
The counsel had said that this aspect may be considered at the earliest subject to compensatory afforestation.
The Supreme Court bench had agreed to consider listing the plea for hearing.
The GMLR project aims at developing road connectivity from Western Express Highway to Eastern Express Highway to reduce travel time by almost an hour between Mulund and Goregaon. The BMC, which is construction the ambitious project, sought the apex court`s permission to cut the trees for the first phase of development.
The Mumbai civic body had earlier assured the bench about following rules on compensatory afforestation, including those related to geo-tagging of saplings to be planted in lieu of the felled trees, the news agency reported.
Following the completion of the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road project, a new link road will be available for Mumbai metropolitan transport to the western suburbs and eastern suburbs, to the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport and to the Airoli to Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal areas.
It will be link between Eastern Suburbs and Western Suburbs not only decongest the existing traffic of Mumbai Suburbs but also reduce the travel time from 75 min to 20 – 25 min. This will result in fuel saving and will enhance Air Quality Index of Mumbai. This is one of the initiatives of BMC towards improving the standard of living of Mumbai Citizens, the officials had earlier said.
(with PTI inputs)
