PANAJI
After a public outcry, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has assured that the government would avoid cutting the coconut trees along the highway at Guirim, and instead build a parallel road as part of the road expansion plans.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Parrikar said that the government would instead allow these trees to become the median between the two directions of the newly-expanded highway.
“We cannot save all the trees. If some of these trees are located along the turn, etc, then they will have to be cut. But we are only planning over how the highway can be built in a way that we can save these trees,” Parrikar said.
Earlier on May 22, the Chief Minister had, via Twitter, stated that the removal of some trees was ‘unavoidable’.
“Every attempt must be made to plan the shifting of the affected tree, and wherever it is difficult to do so, the department concerned should undertake a plantation drive to compensate the loss,” Parrikar had said.
The Parrikar-led government came in for fire after news emerged that more than 200 trees along the Guirim-Socorro stretch of the highway were on the chopping block. Goa Forward currently supporting the BJP government had launched its movement to save the ‘coconut tree’ along this very stretch of road in the run-up to the February 2017 general assembly election.
