PANAJI
The STA has approved felling of 292 trees for two major tourism projects “ Unity Mall at Chimbel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj museum at Bandora in Ponda.
While 195 trees will be cut for the development of the museum, 97 will face the axe for the Unity Mall project.
For Shivaji Museum project, the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) submitted that it intends to create a landmark tourist site at Farmagudi wherein the hill above the current Shivaji statue would be put to use by creating a new bigger statue at the top with an approach road suitable for buggies. GTDC said that it has proposed to fell bare minimum trees towards creation of a pathway leading to the top of the hill.
As far as Unity Mall is concerned, GTDC said that the project is for promotion of Skill India, Make in India, and One District One Product venture of Government of India. GTDC said that it has to create a substantial space for housing different display areas inside and outside, with multiple approaches and execution pathways and that they have made provision for underground parking.
