Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) has revealed Rs 2 lakh has been spent on planting and maintaining each of the 584 trees planted along the Metro 3 route across 13 different locations in the city. The data was released in response to a Right To Information (RTI) query.
Replying to an RTI query by Godfrey Pimenta of the Watchdog Foundation, the Mumbai Metro body said the total expense incurred in supply, delivery, plantation and maintenance came up to be nearly Rs 12 crore.
The founders of the Watchdog Foundation, Godfrey Pimenta and Nicholas Almeida, are demanding an investigation into the expenditure.
“For the metro car shed in Aarey, permission was taken to cut 2,298 trees, then an application was submitted in which a proposal to cut 531 trees was made before the tree authority. The last proposal was for 270 trees. Under compensatory afforestation, trees were transplanted and new saplings were also planted here. But look at their condition. When I filed an RTI regarding this, they said that Rs 12 crores were spent on it,” he said, according to media reports.
“But information about the location of the trees was not given, so RTI was filed again and it was found that Rs 12 crore was spent on 584 trees. About Rs 2 lakh five thousand was spent on each tree. But look at their condition. If maintenance was done then how did it get damaged? It’s a complete fraud,” he added.
Comments
0 comment