Relocate hoarding, avoid tree trimming if visibility affected: Thane Municipal Corporation chief

THANE: The Thane Municipal Corporation will relocate gantry hoardings, if required, but will desist from pruning adjoining trees or branches if they obstruct the hoardings view, municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar said.
The directions were given early this week during a review meeting of officials from the municipal garden department wherein Bangar told his team that the corporation should prioritise saving trees and green cover over advertising revenue generated from these hoardings.
“If there is any tree that is posing hindrance to any hoarding installed in any part of the city, the focus of the corporation should be to relocate the hoarding and let the tree remain intact at its original position without undertaking unnecessary pruning,” Bangar said.
In addition, the commissioner also took serious note of the haphazard manner in which tree-branch are being trimmed by civic and contractual workers in the city.
The commissioner laid down norms to ensure the process doesn't end up permanently harming the trees or posing risk to residents especially in the forthcoming monsoon.
Bangar also took serious note of incidents where officials pushed off the task of tree pruning to societies which could prove dangerous.
“Any call regarding a tree losing its stability or branches dangling dangerously must be attended to immediately. Also, tree pruning doesn’t mean slicing off the tree from its trunk or indiscriminately hacking its branches. Those undertaking the process should take into consideration the overall balance of the tree and also take into account its impact on the nearby structures,” he said.