Launching the Kanwar Corridor, with more than a lakh trees and bushes to go
GHAZIABAD: The approval to cut down over a hundred thousand trees and shrubs in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, and Ghaziabad for the construction of a 111km Kanwar Yatra corridor, a state government’s flagship project, has been granted by the Union environment ministry.
The public works department (PWD) is required to deposit Rs 50 lakh each to the forest divisions of the three districts for compensatory afforestation. The Kanwar corridor, a two-lane road along the Upper Ganga Canal connecting Muradnagar to Purkazi near the Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand border, is slated to be completed in 18 months, necessitating 222.98 hectares of forested areas.
Sanjay Pratap Singh, PWD executive engineer (Meerut), informed TOI that the tree felling operation will commence in a fortnight, with trees being removed in clusters or ‘mile-lots’ of 1.4km, sequentially.
According to environmental laws, if trees are felled for a project, the executing agency is obligated to provide land for compulsory afforestation and funds for the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).
Initially proposed by the chief minister in 2018, the project aims to offer an alternative route for Kanwariyas from Haridwar, diverging from the busy Delhi-Meerut Expressway and the old Meerut highway during the yatra season. The Lalitpur administration agreed to provide the required land for afforestation after other district administrations expressed their inability to do so.
The corridor is anticipated to have 10 large bridges, 27 small bridges, and one rail overbridge. The existing canal bridges, mostly dating back to British rule, are in a dilapidated state and require repairs.
