The wait for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road just got extended with the Regional Empowered Committee (REC) of the Union Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change deferring approval to divert 19.43 hectare of reserved forest land under the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) to the BMC for the project.
At a meeting on Sep 29, the REC said the proposal should be placed again before it after receipt of a detailed cumulative assessment report. Work on two flyovers being built as part of the GMLR at Goregaon began in March. The BMC has projected work on the tunnel under the SGNP to start in February 2023. The road was slated to be opened to traffic by December 2026.
‘The committee opined that since the SGNP is the only green patch available in the metropolitan city of Mumbai, a detailed cumulative study considering all existing and proposed activities in and around SGNP on parameters like ecology, geology, hydrology and seismology need to be carried out,’ the REC said, as per its minutes released earlier this week. ‘The study shall be capable of suggesting the carrying capacity of SGNP for tunnelling and possible cumulative impacts of developmental activities inside the SGNP along with the clear go and no-go areas/activities and mitigation measures thereof.’
The REC has now set up a four-member subcommittee to visit the area and discuss the issue with the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and officials of IIT Bombay and BNHS, and submit a detailed report of preliminary findings along with suggestions.
The REC observed that a cumulative assessment report is necessary despite the report on the impact of the tunnel on groundwater conducted by IIT Bombay. The IIT report said there would be no significant impact on the groundwater as the size of the tunnel is insignificant when compared to that of the SGNP. The REC, however, noted that the IIT study was based on secondary data provided by the user agency and specifically carried out for the proposed tunnel and did not include other existing and proposed activities in the SGNP.
It also noted that the ecological study carried out by the BNHS included a checklist of available biodiversity of the area. That report felt that the activities under the project would not disturb the surface as only tunnelling is proposed and so there would be no direct impact on biodiversity. But the REC pointed out that the proposed tunnel will pass between Vehar and Tulsi lakes, both of which are connected by some perennial and seasonal streams, and tunnelling underneath streams connecting the lakes supplying potable water to the city could result in a change in their hydrology which needs to be assessed.
Earlier, a BMC representative had submitted that the GMLR is important as it will save 8.80 km on the journey from the western suburbs to Thane. Currently vehicles have to take the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road for this journey. The GMLR is also expected to ease traffic congestion on the Western Express Highway and the JVLR. The wildlife officer told the REC that both sides of the SGNP are already connected through existing alternative routes.
Further, an elevated road is proposed from the Ghodbunder side which will also reduce congestion. Therefore, improvement of existing routes and alignments would serve the purpose and there was no need for a tunnel through the SGNP. The proposal to divert 19.43 hectare was placed before the REC on Mar 29, 2019, after which it sought information on compensatory afforestation, site suitability and differential GPS in addition to the Environment Impact Assessment report.
