Rs248cr being spent to decongest Amravati Road, three trees reduce width to 4.3m at one point
This has reduced the width of the newly concretised road, increasing the risk of traffic congestion and road accidents.
Ironically, while NMC refuses to cut the three trees standing as obstacles on the National Highway, it has proposed chopping 52 heritage trees for its Orange City Street Project at Khamla. NMC asked for objections from citizens to this through a public notice on Friday.
The National Highway (NH) division of the state public works department (PWD) is currently building the RTO Flyover, which starts from University Square and lands in front of the RTO, at a cost of Rs248 crore.
This is part of a larger project to decongest the busy Amravati Road. As part of the project, the PWD also concretised the roads below the flyover. The stretch between Law College Square and Bole Petrol Pump was closed for some time for this, and opened on Thursday.
A spot visit by TOI revealed that some of the trees on this stretch have reduced the width of the newly concretised road, and are a bottleneck. A PWD official told TOI they approached NMC to get permission to cut four trees on the road.
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"Three trees were on the Law College Square to Bole Petrol Pump Square stretch, while the fourth one was on the opposite side. NMC gave us permission to cut only the single tree on the stretch from Bole Petrol Pump to Law College stretch.
We had planned a 7m wide road below the flyover to accommodate at least two vehicles at a time. But the trees have reduced the width to 4.3m at one point, so if a truck or bus passes from the stretch, no other vehicle can be accommodated and it will become a bottleneck," said the PWD official.
NMC garden superintendent Amol Chorpagar said that the trees will not hinder traffic. "The flyover is being built to accommodate heavy traffic, so the road below will not have that much traffic. The commissioner has given the nod for cutting one tree and we have saved two trees," said Chorpagar, who claimed that 80% of the traffic will use the flyover.
However, many regular commuters argue that the road below the flyover is an important one. "The flyover passes over important squares and many motorists will use it. The trees are on the road and at night if any speeding car or two-wheeler rams into it and someone dies, then who will be responsible," said Amit Gupta, one of the regular commuters.
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