BMC plan to widen Aarey main road rings alarm bells

Activist says pockets inside green zone are now parts of a reserved forest and BMC shouldn’t think of the road as a short-cut

The civic corporation’s plan to upgrade the main road cutting through the Aarey Milk Colony has upset a green activist. He says the civic body is trying to convert the two-lane thoroughfare into four lanes under the pretext of concretisation, which will lead to loss of green cover.  

“It is shocking to find that BMC is planning to widen the main road through the Aarey forest under the garb of road improvement,” said environmentalist Zoru Bhathena.
The activist said the BMC is legally required to regulate traffic through eco-sensitive zones (ESZs) and forested patches of Aarey. “They certainly cannot use the Aarey forest roads as some sort of traffic short-cut. It is high time our authorities realised that every plan for Aarey should be for reducing the anthropogenic footprint, and never for increasing it,” he said.

The main road runs from the Western Express Highway near Goregaon to Filter Pada at Bhandup and about 8 km of it goes through Aarey.
Bhathena has raised his objections in a letter to the BMC chief, who is also the chairman of SGNP ESZ Monitoring Committee, and a host of state and central officials. Citing the ESZ Notification, the letter says till a zonal master plan is prepared for Aarey and is cleared by the authorities, “traffic shall be regulated in a habitat friendly manner”.

As per Para 4(16) of the ESZ Notification, the letter says, the widening and strengthening of existing roads, bridges, infrastructure and construction of new roads, public utility or community buildings are to be done without any “adverse impact” to the green zone. It says the Maharashtra government last year notified several areas of Aarey as “Reserved Forest” and that “no fresh clearing shall be made for any purpose except in accordance with the State Government rules”.

Bhathena said he raised the objections after BMC’s deputy chief engineer (Roads WS) announced a plan on October 4 to “improve” the main road passing through Aarey. 

“It is clear that widening of the existing road cannot be done without ecological destruction to the ESZ & forested areas adjoining the existing road,” reads his letter.

8km
Length of main road stretch that goes through Aarey

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