No nod to cut trees costs MMRCL ` 4.28 crore per day

Construction work at Aarey car shed and other areas has been stalled and equipment worth crores of rupees is lying idle. As permission has not been granted to cut trees, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) is suffering a loss of Rs 4.28 crore on a daily basis. However, the rent running into crores will have to be eventually paid by the government and tax payers. This information was given by the state government to Bombay High Court on Monday, during the hearing of the petition of tree authority committee. MMRCL requested the court to lift a stay on work of the tree authority, which is attached to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

As BMC is yet to appoint necessary experts to the authority, the HC directed it to reply by Wednesday. The division bench of Justices Sandeep Shinde and Sarang Kotwal heard the matter.

This committee of 15 members should compulsorily have seven botanists and sadly till now, they have not managed to appoint any. The previous committee had 14 corporators, which is why the court scrapped this entire committee.

The tree authority is the sole committee that gives permission for felling trees in the city. BMC claims all pre-monsoon preparations have stopped, like trimming dangerous branches, Mumbai Metro, road widening and other infrastructure projects have come to a halt. BMC claimed the problems of citizens are likely to increase in the coming rains.

The division bench heard a petition filed by tree activist Zoru Bathena. A new committee has been formed with experts asserts BMC, which said the stay should now be removed so that they can begin pre-monsoon work in the city.

However the petitioner opposed this move, because only four experts have been appointed to this committee, instead of 15.