JNPA to Chowk highway to engulf 11.5k trees, 24 ha forest land

Mumbai: The proposed six-lane, access-controlled 30-km highway connecting Jawaharlal Nehru Port with the Mumbai-Pune and the Mumbai-Goa highways will require diversion of over 24 hectares of forest land and involve the felling of at least 11,500 trees. It will pass through 18.27 hectares of water bodies, 1.7 hectares of wetland, and the Karanja creek, which is categorised as an eco-sensitive zone, show minutes of Wednesday’s union cabinet meeting where the project was approved.

The minutes – uploaded the Parivesh portal under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change – state that the proposed highway will require approximately 175.914 hectares of land including 70 hectares of agricultural land. It will be developed on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis at a cost of ₹4,500.62 crore.

Anshumali Srivastava, chief general manager, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said they would acquire land by December 2025 and work would be completed in two years. “We have selected an alignment that requires minimum cutting of trees and will undertake compensatory afforestation,” she told Hindustan Times.

Crucial project

At present, vehicles leaving the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) premises require 2-3 hours to reach the arterial Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) section that connects with the old Mumbai-Pune highway (NH-48), the Mumbai-Goa highway (NH-66) and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway due to heavy congestion in urban areas like Palaspe Phata, D-Point, Kalamboli junction and Panvel. Traffic in the area is expected to rise further after operationalisation of the Navi Mumbai airport in mid-2025.

The greenfield six-lane national highway is designed to address these requirements and improve connectivity between the JNPA port and the Navi Mumbai airport. The proposal for construction of the highway was placed before the expert advisory committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) in January-end, and it was approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

NHAI claims that the highway will lead to overall improvement in the area, including better connectivity, faster growth, savings in fuel and transportation costs, reduction in accidents, development of local agriculture and handicrafts, and new opportunities for employment and trade.

Mitigation measures

The MOEFCC has directed NHAI to engage a nationally reputed institute like Zoological Survey of India or Wildlife Institute of India to prepare a wildlife mitigation and conservation plan, in consultation with the Maharashtra forest department. The plan must ensure that no mangroves are cut or affected due to construction of the highway and enable restoration and revival of mangroves.

As part of compensatory afforestation, NHAI will create a 10-metre wide greenbelt on either side of the highway, covering 24.5 hectares on which 32,000 trees from native, local species will be planted.

Environmentalists have slammed the move to build the highway, saying it would endanger the local ecology.

“There is uncontrolled destruction of trees and mangroves already. The authorities claim they will undertake compensatory afforestation for the highway but the survival rate of new trees is very poor,” said Uran-based environmentalist Nandakumar Pawar.