NAGPUR: Amid strong opposition to the felling of over 5,000 age-old trees for the proposed inter-modal station at Ajni, shocking facts have come to the fore.
According to an internal presentation procured by environmentalists and shared with TOI, the project is being planned in multiple phases and the real damage — the loss of over 40,000 trees — is being “kept under wraps”.
As per them, the selective dissemination of data indicates that the bend towards commercialization is more rather than utility.
At present, the government has confirmed details of phase-1 of the inter-modal station which is coming up at 44 acres lands of Central Railway in Ajni.
Initially, the first phase was to come at 54 acres land.
A presentation prepared by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the implementing agency of the project, reveals that there are total four phases of the entire project.
Apart from phase-1 of the IMS, phase-2 is also in pipeline that is expected to come up at 48 acres of land.
It is not known if there will be modifications to this plan.
Environmentalists alleged that the real intention behind the project is commercial gains, as is evident from the NHAI’s presentation.
Apart from two phases of IMS, two phases of Commercial Business Development are planned to come up at 151 and 237 acres of land, respectively.
The land belongs to different government agencies including Railways, Food Corporation of India, Central Jail and others.
Environment activists have blamed the authorities for not coming out with the real picture and hiding facts from the citizens.
Earlier, NHAI had stated that 1,940 trees need to be felled for phase-1 of IMS.
After pressure from activists, a joint survey between officials from Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s garden department and NHAI was done, revealing that over 6,000 trees will have to be cut.
Even now, the authorities have spoken about tree-felling for only phase-1.
While the number of trees that need to be felled for other phases is not known, environmentalists who have surveyed the proposed sites have done a back-of-the-hand calculation based on tree per acre formula.
“Our calculations show that a total of 70,000 trees are in danger.
We are still taking into account only 40,000 considering the variation in green cover at different locations.
However, most of the locations have thick green cover, with Central Jail area being very dense,” said environment activist Jaydeep Das.
Stressing that the complete environmental loss should be projected to public, Das said, “The notice for cutting 5,000 trees on 44acres is misleading to public and should be withdrawn.
If not, then NMC is hand in gloves when it comes to fooling regular citizens of Nagpur by hiding data.” In agreement with him, activist Anasuya Kale Chhabrani said, “Shying away from transparency seems to be the modus operandi of the government.
Had they been open about their plans, we would have found a better way to deal with this.
Nobody is against development but it should be sustainable.
Hiding facts from the public raises various questions on the intention behind the project.” Stating that it is clearly visible that commercial space is more than actual public utility of IMS, Das said, “Project implementors are aware that this project is not viable at Ajni.
All these commercial infrastructure creation is to try and offset the loss caused by standalone IMS.
Only viable option is to shift it to Khapri in a smaller area.” NHAI officials did not comment on the issue.
Phase 1 Inter-Modal Station-1 | 44 acres (At Central railway’s land in Ajni which currently houses old quarters) No of trees to be cut | 4,522 in this area and 408 for flyover; Total | 4,930 Phase 2 Commercial Business Development 1 | 117 acres (Central Jail land) + 34 acres (Food Corporation of India land); Total | 151 acres No of trees to be cut | 13,000 approx Phase 3 Commercial Business Development 2 | 237 acres (Railway land and some vacant plots) No of trees to be cut | 20,000 approx Phase 4 Inter-Modal Station-2 | 48 acres (Area near Dhanwatey National College) No of trees to be cut | 4,000 approx (The proposed areas also include some plots whose ownership is not confirmed.
Apart from phase-1, the number of trees to be cut for other phases is a rough estimation done by environmentalists)