Build coastal road on stilts to save mangroves: State: The Times of India

Civic Body Appoints New Consultant For Project Sandeep Takke

The Maharashtra environment department has suggested to the civic body that it would be preferable to build the coastal road on stilts through areas where mangroves are located.

The department has pointed out that the construction of the Rs 13,000 crore shoreline motorway on stilts will help save mangroves spread over 9-km stretches. It has suggested constructing the road on stilts two-and-a-half metres above the mangroves to ensure that there is space to grow. In its draft notification to amend the 2011 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification to allow the coastal road either through reclamation or on stilts, the Union ministry of environment and forests has even proposed replanting only three times the original mangroves lost. This is in sharp contrast to the requirement of replanting five times in an area like Mumbai under the very same CRZ notification.Civic chief Ajoy Mehta said the BMC would ensure that the coast's ecology is unaffected by the road.

Mehta said a new consultant has been appointed to do a detailed survey of the alignment and prepare a fresh detailed project report (DPR) that includes civil engineering work and meet international standards as global bids are to be invited for the project. The DPR prepared by STUP consultants is at variance with the plan sub mitted by the state government-appointed joint technical committee (JTC). Based on the JTC's report, both the state government and Centre approved the coastal road project. The new consultant will compare the original plan with the DPR and make fresh submissions.

“The last date for submission of suggestions is August 27,“ said Sanjay Mukherjee, the additional municipal commissioner in charge of the project. “We are ensuring that the DPR is peer reviewed. Also a consultant has been appointed to do a detailed study vis-a-vis the joint technical committee report. After the entire process is completed we shall submit the suggestions received as well as the DPR to the government of India, which shall take the final decision,“ he added.

TIMES VIEW :

It's heartening to see government agencies becoming more conscious of the need to ensure protection for the environment. As we have said before, environment and development are not two mutually exclusive agenda; both go together. Development must happen and the environment must be protected; development at the cost of nature is more regression than progress.