1,342 trees to be cut to widen Avinashi-Mettupalayam road in Coimbatore

Coimbatore: Widening of Avinashi-Mettupalayam road comes at the cost of green cover. After felling 470 trees on the 13km Avinashi-Nariyampalli stretch last month, the State Highways Department has started axing another 1,342 trees on Nariyampalli-Mettupalayam stretch for the Rs226-crore project to convert the two-lane, 38km stretch from Avinashi in Tirupur district to Mettupalayam in Coimbatore district into four-lane.
The current width of the two-lane road is just seven metres. Taking the heavy traffic congestion on the stretch into consideration, the state highways department is now working on converting it into a four-lane road, which would be 16.2 metres wide.
In the first phase, the road widening work would be carried out from Avinashi to Nariyampalli for a stretch of 13km, for which the state govt has sanctioned Rs80 crore. State Highways officials with the Avinashi sub-division had axed H470 trees on the stretch last month to facilitate the road widening work, which would begin anytime soon.
State Highways officials with the Annur and Mettupalayam sub-divisions would, meanwhile, carry out the road widening work from Nariyampalli to Mettupalayam for a stretch of 25km, for which the state govt has sanctioned Rs146 crore. "We have started axing 1,342 trees on the Nariyampalli–Mettupalayam stretch. The four-lane road will be 16.2 metres wide. There will be a median as well. We are going to acquire land and shift the valves of giant pipelines of Athikadavu-Avinashi water project," said a senior State Highways official.
He said 550 grown trees would be translocated to Annur–Sirumugai road, Karamadai-Tholampalayam road, Kannarpalayam-Bellathi road and a few other stretches belonging to the State Highways Department.
"We have started planting 10 saplings for each tree felled along other SH roads and land parcels belonging to the state highways. We know the value of trees. We cannot, however, expand two-lane roads to four lanes without felling trees," the official said.
K Kathirmathiyon, secretary, Coimbatore Consumer Cause, said the highways officials were only interested in widening the roads, and not in planting saplings. "Sometimes, highways officials claim that they are growing trees on other stretches. But their claims are false. Judicial officials should closely monitor the issue and direct the highway officials to grow trees on roadsides," he said.