Ghaziabad: The public works department (PWD) has been told to plant 1.7 lakh trees in place of the 17,000 trees it cut across the districts of Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar to make way for the now-stalled Kanwar corridor project.A PWD official said the instruction came during a review meeting of the project in Lucknow and will be carried out as a “goodwill gesture”. “A direction has been issued to PWD that in lieu of the 17,000 trees cut, 1.70 lakh trees should be planted along the same 111 km route spread across three districts: Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar. Since the issue is still pending before NGT, this will be implemented to ensure faster resolution of the issue,” he said.The 111km, two-lane corridor was proposed by the state govt to decongest Delhi-Meerut Expressway and provide an alternative route for kanwariyas who travel from Haridwar during the month of Shravan. The road is to begin at Muradnagar in Ghaziabad and run through Jani in Meerut and Purkazi in Muzaffarnagar along Upper Ganga Canal, a forested area. It was planned that 1.12 lakh trees along this route would be cut so that the road could be built.Construction work had already started and 17,000 trees had been felled by PWD when NGT took suo motu cognisance of the matter in 2024. Following the court’s injunctions, the project was halted.Subsequently, PWD proposed a change in alignment of the road that would not require cutting down the same number of trees. As per the new plan, a 7m buffer zone was proposed between the forested canal area and the road. The width of the road itself was reduced to 5m.“The matter is still pending with NGT. As of now, we have not received clearance from the ministry of environment, forest and climate change on the realignment yet,” the official said.Every year during the kanwar yatra, Delhi-Meerut Expressway and other highways in the state see traffic jams and accidents. A total of 54 villages are situated along the route taken by kanwariyas during the yatra. Commuting becomes a hassle for the residents of these villages during the fortnight the kanwar yatris use these expressways.The Kanwar corridor project was proposed in 2018 to provide an alternative route to western Uttar Pradesh districts and Uttarakhand along the right bank of Upper Ganga Canal to benefit the yatris and the locals living along the highway. In 2020, the state govt’s expenditure and finance committee approved the project, which is to be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 628 crore.
