Twin tunnel under SGNP gets forest ministry nod
'SGNP being a protected forest in the city, the approval is a major milestone and the final one,' Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner (projects), told Hindustan Times.
The final approval was granted by the forest ministry on Tuesday. Earlier, in January 2024, the ministry had granted in principle approval for the twin tunnel project.
The ministry has directed the SGNP authorities to hand over 19.43 hectares of reserve forest land required for the tunnels to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The land will be transferred in accordance with section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, which restricts de-reservation of forest land for non-forest purposes without approval from the central government.
The legal status of the land parcel that will be transferred to the BMC will remain as 'forest', said Bangar.
'The SGNP authorities gave the land on condition that afforestation would be carried out on an equal amount of land in non-forest areas,' he said.
Accordingly, the BMC will undertake compensatory afforestation on 19.5 hectares of non-forest land, including 14.95 hectares in Vasanvihira village and 4.55 hectares in Gondmohadi village, both in Chandrapur district.
The 12-kilometre-long GMLR, which will connect the eastern and western suburbs of the city, will begin at Dindoshi court as an elevated flyover and descend near the gate of the Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari (film city) into a shallow, 1.22-kilometre box tunnel with three lanes till the boundary of SGNP. The 4.7-km twin tunnel, being constructed at a cost of ₹ 6,580-crore, will begin at the western edge of the national park and end at the eastern edge in Bhandup.
Civic officials said a shaft was being created on the western end of the tunnel, which would be 60-120 metres deep and hold the tunnel boring machine (TBM).
'TBMs imported from China have reached ports in the city,' said an official. The machine will take at least a year to complete the tunneling, following which a shaft will be sunk on the eastern end.
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