No road widening proposed in Aarey, clarifies BMC

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday clarified a tender floated earlier this month for proposed road work in Aarey, an urban forest within Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park, will not include any widening. Only road up-gradation from tar to concrete will be carried out, it added.

Environmentalists remained sceptical of the clarification as the tender calls for the construction of a nine-metre-wide road as opposed to the existing seven-metre. They highlighted the BMC intends to lay concrete pipes on either side of the road, which seems unnecessary in an area with sufficient natural drainage.