The parking lot is a crucial project, which will help in completely de-congesting SGNP
Worried over one of their most crucial projects stuck for over eight months for a simple No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Council, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) management has now written to Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta to intervene.
Last week, Anwar Ahmed, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) and Director of SGNP wrote to Mehta requesting him to help clear the proposal of constructing a parking lot outside SGNP gate for which they require an NOC stating that there was no claim of any tribals pending under Forest Right Act (FRA) on this land. However despite forest officials visiting and meeting several BMC officials as well as corporators, the matter has yet not been taken up in the house for over two months now.
"The parking lot is a very crucial project, which will help in completely de-congesting SGNP. Once its built no visitor will be allowed to bring in their vehicles inside the park and they will have to use the 20 Battery Operated Vehicles (BOV) that would be provided by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) to commute," shared Ahmed adding that since the NOC is pending they cannot begin the work and hence tired of waiting for several months they have decided to approach the Municipal Commissioner. In fact, the hold up is also jeopardising the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) SGNP had signed up with MTDC.
"MTDC has been sending us reminders as it wants to start the BOV service for which we will need to set up infrastructure like sheds and charging points, which we plan to set up in the parking lot itself that will be able to accommodate 255 cars and 125 two-wheelers. However we have no choice but to ask for more time as we hope that BMC will clear the proposal," said PB Bhalekar, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) who has himself visited and met the BMC officials on several occasions.
Another senior forest official said that the project was for a environment friendly cause and it was surprising that BMC was holding it up without any reason. "Instead of helping us make SGNP vehicle-free, the BMC is delaying the project. We will be forced to write to the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) informing them that since the civic body was delaying the project they should suggest another way of going ahead with the project," said the official added.
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