Environmentalists oppose road widening in Aarey

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) earlier this month released a tender to widen the Aarey main road, officially known as Dinkar Rao Desai Marg, to four lanes, with a width of nine metres, up from the existing seven-metre wide, two-lane arrangement. The development, which marks the second time this year that BMC has issued a tender for revamping the Aarey main road, has sparked the ire of environmentalists, who maintain that such infrastructure expansion can be ecologically detrimental to the area.

For example, the Aarey main road (which connects the western express highway) to the P/South, K/East and S Wards in suburban Mumbai, falls under the centrally notified eco-sensitive zone (ESZ)