Navi Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has scrapped the proposed flyover over Palm Beach Road in Vashi. A total of 390 trees were proposed to be uprooted for the project. However, residents as well as environmentalists were against the project.
Last week, the civic administration took the decision following opposition from several sections including Airoli MLA Ganesh Naik.
As part of the project, there was a plan to shift 384 trees and cut 6 trees to construct a flyover from Arenja Corner in sector 17 in Vashi to Kopri village in Vashi.
Jitendra Awhad, the then Housing Minister of Maharashtra had opposed the project and held a meeting with the then civic chief Abhijit Bangar. He had raised his concerns on the number of trees to be replanted or cut for the project.
FLyover was supposed to clear traffic
Planned at a cost of ₹350 crores, the flyover was supposed to clear traffic congestion along the stretch, especially at Arenja Corner at sector 17 in Vashi. Residents were of the view that a plant takes 20 years to grow and just for the sake of a flyover, the administration was removing trees.
Divya Vaibhav Gaikwad, a former corporator from Vashi and ex-member of the Environment Committee of NMMC said that the encroachment near Satra Plaza along Palm Beach creates traffic congestion. She said that she is happy that the project has been scrapped.
An alternative solution to constructing a flyover
According to Gaikwad, in 2016/17 the then municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe had revoked the OC of Satra Plaza commercial complex for violation of NMMC by giving access to the complex from the main road creating traffic congestion. Even in 2017/18, the then municipal commissioner N Ramaswamy had decided to construct a wall along the road starting from to prevent encroachment starting from the APMC signal, via Satara Plaza commercial complex to Kopri village signal. “The same can be done instead of constructing a flyover,” said Gaikwad.
