20,000 acres, 25k trees to go for B’luru-Pune expressway

Nearly 20,000 acres of green fields in Karnataka, including 383 acres of forest land, are required for the new Pune-Bengaluru expressway, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has said.

The 719.26-km toll road will be developed as six-lane, but with additional space for upgrading to eight-lane road.

It passes through nine districts in Karnataka, which will lose 12,355 acres and three districts in Maharashtra, which will lose 7,166 acres.

The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project is yet to be finalised, but NHAI officials estimate that the project will require the felling of 25,000 trees, 60% of which are in Karnataka.