Road project on D.B. Road threatens green cover.

The Model Road project that the Coimbatore Corporation has planned to execute on D.B. Road, R.S. Puram, is now threatening to remove the place of its tree cover.

Sources familiar with the issue say that that soon after the Corporation announced the launch of the project and work began on the southern end of the D.B. Road, the work came to a halt as a few utility providers were yet to shift their cables.

Once that was sorted out, the contractor executing the plan wanted to just go ahead with trench construction without adhering to the agreed plan. This meant that the 1.80 km stretch of D.B. Road where the project was to be executed would be poorer by 90 trees.

The agreed plan was that the contractor was to stop the trench construction three metres away from the trees so that the cables of utility providers could be taken around in such a way that trees were not disturbed, said sources familiar with the issue.

Having the trees there was central to the Model Road project because their absence would mean that pedestrians could not sit or any activity could take place there. People associated with the Corporation also said that in Pune and a few other places where the city administration had implemented the project, they had not touched the trees. The same was also true of the T.V. Samy Street, where the Corporation had scheduled the work to start soon.

When the architects and non-government agencies raised the issue with the Corporation, sources said, the officials expressed helplessness and cited political interference. The contractor was treating the work as just another road expansion work, which it was not.

And, this was not a highway road work. A city road work should not disturb trees and that too Model Road project. The contractor appeared to not appreciate such purpose of the project, the sources added.

Corporation officials admitted that the Model Road project that was scheduled to start was not progressing because of problems in trench alignment and that was due to the presence of trees.

They added that there would be a design change and the Corporation would make an attempt to save the trees and was yet to finalise the new design.

THE HINDU