Another railway corridor, more forest to be diversified in Maharashtra

The WDFC alignment which is 177 km from JNPT to Bordi in Maharashtra will also pass through Palghar district. File pic

The construction of the WDFC's (Western Dedicated Freight Corridor) double line railway tracks from JNPT to Dadri (near Delhi), will now require diversion of close to 12.86 hectares of forest in Palghar and Thane district. The authorities from WDFC have approached the MOEF for this.

The Ministry of Railways plans to construct a dedicated freight corridor with Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) named Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited covering about 2,843 kilometres on the Western corridor from JNPT Mumbai to Dadri and an eastern corridor from Ludhiana to Sonia Nagar, Dankuni.

The proposed Western route between Mumbai and Delhi, of dedicated freight corridor double line starts from the JNPT terminal yard and ends at Dadri about 35 kilometres from Delhi. The total length of alignment in Maharashtra which is 177 km from JNPT to Bordi passes through Raigad, Thane and Palghar districts.

‘Submitted proposal'
In the year 2017 a rule came up which said that all mangroves area will be treated as deemed forest. Chief Projects Manager of DFCCIL, Mumbai (South) Rajeev Tyagi said, "In the proposal that we have submitted to MOEF&CC regarding diversion of 12.58 hectares of land, about nine hectares of land in two villages has mangroves. We had granted permission for cutting the same as we had permission from the high court, but the Forest Department told us that now it is not private or government land, but forest land and asked us to submit a proposal for diversion.

We have submitted the proposal and it is currently with the Forest Department at the local level. Within a fortnight it will go to Nagpur for necessary approvals. Our alignment remains same and there is no change in it. We follow all the rules and compensatory mitigation afforestation will also be carried out along with the mitigation measures the Forest Department tells us to do."

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