Consultant to be hired for Miyawaki plantation

MUMBAI: A month after stalling a proposal for cutting and transplanting over 300 trees for the elevated Metro-2A corridor between Dahisar and D N Nagar, the Shiv Sena-led tree authority panel on Friday cleared the same. The trees that will be affected are in areas like Kandivli's Laljipada, D N Nagar in Andheri and Goregaon . While 159 trees are proposed to be axed, 151 others will be transplanted.On February 14, the BMC had first tabled the proposal to cut the trees following an application from the MMRDA , which is implementing the Metro project. The proposal was stalled by the Sena, which sought more details on the plan. But in Friday's meeting the tree panel cleared the proposal, with recommendations.Sena leader in the BMC Yashwant Jadhav said: "We have asked the BMC to keep a strict vigil on where these trees are being transplanted...the authorities implementing the Metro project should ensure that the trees are transplanted in a municipal area, where the BMC can monitor their survival rate." BJP's Abhijit Samant who is also a tree committee member, said that they had been in favour of the proposal from the start.The civic tree authority on Friday sanctioned a proposal for appointing a consultant for the Miyawaki method of plantation at a cost of Rs 2 crore. The BMC has decided to increase urban forest cover by adopting the Japanese technique of growing dense plantations in a short time.