Mumbai: The civic standing committee on Wednesday approved payment of Rs 20 crore to the director of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), for human-wildlife conflict mitigation plan and wildlife conservation plan in Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Tungareshwar Sanctuary, as part of the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project. The GMLR project includes construction of 5.30-km-long twin tunnels under the SGNP between Film City-Goregaon and Amarnagar, Mulund, and construction of 1.32-km long box tunnels and access roads for the same in Chitranagari area, using the tunnel boring machine. Payment for the project is being done as per the terms and conditions imposed for approval of the plan by the National Board for Wildlife. According to the proposal presented in the standing committee, the estimated cost of the tunnel project under SGNP as mentioned in the proposal submitted to the National Board for Wildlife in 2017 is Rs 1,997.50 crore and it was proposed to deposit one percent of the amount, that is Rs 20 crore, with the Chief Conservator of Forests and Director, SGNP. As per the terms and conditions of the approval given by the National Wildlife Board in its meeting in Feb 2019, a man-animal conflict prevention plan and a wildlife conservation plan has to be prepared for the protected area by the State Chief Wildlife Warden and a grant of Rs 20 crore has to be made to the Director, SGNP, for implementation of the plan. The human-wildlife conflict/conservation plans include fencing, information boards, signages, watch towers, veterinary ambulance teams, transit treatment centers, control rooms, creating artificial ponds and involving NGOs for wildlife conservation, air pollution monitors and dust control mitigation measures among other measures. According to the proposal, a contractor for the work has been selected and the work has started in Nov 2023 and is expected to be completed by Oct 2028. During the Standing Committee, Congress corporator Ashraf Azmi demanded that the forest department provide proper details of how the money would be spent. Azmi later pointed out that there has also been an escalation in the project cost.
