Entire endeavour will sound death knell for trees: NGO

Mumbai: The proposed Brihanmumbai Muncipal Corporation (BMC) project to widen the Hazarimal Somani Road may sound the death knell for the trees planted along the road. The Watchdog Foundation, a NGO, has raised an alarm to safeguard the nearly 100 trees that line the road and could perish if the project goes ahead.

Revealing that the proposal is not part of the latest draft DP 2034, the NGO has questioned the legality of the road project. The foundation said that their president, Godfrey Pimenta met the BMC commissioner to protest against the widening project as it will damage the ecology, that is already affected due to other developmental projects in the area.

According to Mr Pimenta, who has been at the forefront of pointing out anomalies in the draft DP 2034, he had studied the entire plan and did not find the Hazarimal Somani Road mentioned for any developmental project. “BMC officials are resorting to pressure tactics by claiming that the road requires widening while there is no plan at all. There are some vested interests involved,” he said.

Mr Pimenta said that there were very few roads in SoBo that have a green canopy on the entire stretch like Somani Marg. “Hence, we met Mr Ajoy Mehta and handed over our protest against the proposal and since then there has been no activity with regards to the road widening project,” he said.

He added that though there was no hint of BMC going ahead with the road widening project, the moment they start working towards it the foundation would hold dharnas and protests to stall it.