The Regional Empowered Committee (REC) under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has granted an in-principle approval for BMC’s request to divert reserved forest land for construction of tunnels along the Rs 6,225 crore Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR), reported Free Press Journal. The final approval for the diversion of 19.43 hectare of reserved forest land will be given by the REC after it receives some additional information it has demanded.
The REC has recommended a holistic study on the effect of the twin tunnel construction on ecological, geological, hydrological and seismological aspects of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
Also, the Maharashtra state government in consultation with all stakeholders will inform the total number of upcoming proposals where underground tunnels below the SGNP are proposed.
“An undertaking from BMC to the effect that ‘no more tunnels other than the proposed tunnels shall be constructed by the User Agency in future’ if the study asked vide point ‘a’ above is conclusive of the requirement of only one tunnel by the User Agency i.e. the BMC, keeping in view the traffic situation for next 50-100 years,’’ mentioned the REC in the minutes of the meeting.
REC added that, “Since the User Agency, BMC has not been able to manage the increasing population inside the city, the pristine area of the SGNP is falling prey to the menace of encroachment. It is realized that the officials of SGNP cannot evict these encroachers in totality without active involvement of the BMC. Therefore, the User Agency shall provide an undertaking to actively collaborate with the officials of the SGNP and participate in evicting all encroachments from the SGNP, and if need be, rehabilitate them elsewhere within one year positively.”
GMLR project has already received an approval from the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) and the Maharashtra State Board of Wildlife and Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ). The work on the project is expected to start in February 2023. Once completed, the link will reduce the travel time between the two places from one and half hours now to 20 minutes.
