The Union government has cleared the diversion of 237 hectares of forest land for a proposed corridor connecting the Vadhavan port to National Highway 48 in Maharashtra’s Dahanu-Palghar region, the Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
The clearance was granted in March during a meeting of a regional empowered committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Nagpur.
The Vadhavan port, being developed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority and the Maharashtra Maritime Board in Palghar district, will be the country’s first offshore port and is designed to handle ultra-large container vessels.
A proposal for an eight-lane highway linking the port to National Highway 48 was submitted by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority on February 24, the newspaper cited the minutes of the meeting as having said. The port will also be connected to the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.
The corridor will pass through the Dahanu and Palghar talukas.
The total area proposed for the highway is 606.6 hectares, which includes 237 hectares of forest land and 369.5 hectares of non-forest land, the Hindustan Times reported. The project also includes 13.7 hectares of private forest land and 9.2 hectares of mangrove area.
The forest land being diverted for the proposed corridor is home to 29,923 trees, largely deciduous and mangrove vegetation, the Hindustan Times cited the minutes of the meeting as having said. This includes species such as teak, khair and shisham.
In April, revenue authorities in Palghar cleared the acquisition of land for the highway. As part of this, 611 homes will be demolished. Additionally, 72,790 trees, 21 ponds and 209 wells and borewells will also be destroyed.
The state government has also proposed compensatory afforestation on 475 hectares of degraded forest land identified in 19 patches within Dhule division.
The National Highways Authority of India has already issued a Letter of Award for the construction of the first part – a four-lane expressway – to J Kumar Infraprojects Limited and Shinde Developers Private Limited for Rs 2,360 crore, the newspaper reported. The four-lane corridor will be expandable to eight lanes in the future.
Environmentalists have described the proposed projects as one the “biggest assaults” on green cover in the region, The Times of India reported.
BN Kumar, director of the non-governmental organisation NatConnect Foundation, said that the “highway and railway corridor will stand on massive concrete pillars replacing dense, natural canopy”.
Nandakumar Pawar, director of the non-governmental organisation Sagar Shakti, said that authorities should have explored alternative alignments and consulted local stakeholders before finalising the route. He also demanded a review of the clearance process.
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