Now, MMRDA sets up garden department

Emulating the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has now set up a garden department (GD). The department will be responsible to look after the trees planted at various locations. Besides, the officials in the garden department will find out ways and suggest various initiatives to tackle climate change, said Sanjay Khandare, Additional Commissioner, MMRDA. Khandare made the statement while carrying out a plantation drive at Shilphata in Thane on Tuesday.

Sources from MMRDA stated that the newly-established garden department will help the authority to deal with environmental issues, if any. The authority has undertaken several big-budget infrastructure projects in the last few years. The proposed 14 different metro lines project has been approved and some of the metro lines construction has already been started, with the work in full swing. Besides this, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Sea Link and Virar Alibaug Multi Modal corridor are also crucial projects. The official from MMRDA stated, “These projects once completed and opened for public will bring a major change in the transportation sector. But for the construction of these projects, the existing green cover needs to be cut. Thus, to overcome these, the green initiatives are a compensatory measure to recover the damage that has been done so far. The existence of such a department will prove beneficial and fulfill the requirements.”

The authority has claimed that it has successfully completed 51,151 tree plantations in the Mumbai metropolitan region.

The drive was started in August 2019 and concluded on Tuesday (October 22). The plantation drive was undertaken in the area admeasuring 46 hectares in Gotheghar in Shilpata at Thane and of the 51,151 trees, 10,000 saplings have been planted in Titwala and Kalyan region. Bakul, Neem, Pimpal, Vad, Shiso, Tamhan, Arjun, Kadamb, Jarul, Jambul are few of the varieties of saplings that have been planted.

Interestingly, to take care of these saplings, MMRDA for the first time has also signed a tripartite agreement with the Thane Forest Department and the Maharashtra State Forest Development Corporation.

The growth of all saplings will be monitored for a period of three years by experts, informed the officials.