Maharashtra: Panel recommends design change in elevated Thane-Ghodbunder Road

The committee, including Bilal Habib from the Wildlife Institute of India, Anish Andheria from the Wildlife Conservation Trust and Virendra Tiwari and Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (APCCF) Mangrove Cell, was set up in the State Board For Wildlife meeting in October last year to study the project, carry out site inspections and suggest mitigation measures for the approval of the road projects.

The elevated road will have six to eight lanes, as stated in the suggestion.

The elevated road has been proposed to decongest Ghodbunder Road, which cannot be widened further. With four lanes elevated and four lanes of the existing road, it will become an eight-lane stretch. While heavy vehicles will continue to use the lower road, smaller vehicles can zip across the elevated road.

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As per the suggestion from the committee, the ground level road will not remain operational in Wildlife Sensitive Area after the completion of the elevated road. Ghodbunder Road is one of the major thoroughfares leading out of Thane city and connecting the Eastern Express Highway on one end and the Western Express Highway on the other.

“As per the revised proposal, there is an increase in the forest area, so there will be changes in estimated cost, mitigation measures, therefore the Chief Wildlife Warden, Maharashtra in a letter dated April 13 has directed the additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) West, to get a fresh proposal from the project agency as per the revised design,” stated the proposal.

The Rs 667-crore projects had received approval from the state government in 2018. However, the MSRDC needs clearance from the State Wildlife Board and the Forest Department to construct inside the SGNP area.

This road carries a significant load of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust-bound traffic to and from Gujarat. A stretch of the road abuts SGNP and the Vasai creek. Environmentalists oppose the project, while SGNP has one of the highest density of leopards in any urban forest.

The forest department has already put 26 conditions, including mitigation measures such as large box culverts, animal underpass and compensatory afforestation, to clear the way for an elevated corridor, which were also studied by the committee.

The forest department also decided to invoke a penal afforestation clause under the Forest Conservation Act after it came to light that three decades ago, Ghodbunder Road was widened using land from SGNP without its approval. The department has sought a penalty of 1 per cent of the project cost from the MSRDC.