The Supreme Court has put a stop to the felling or transplantation of trees for the ongoing Metro Rail project in Kolkata’s Maidan area. The project, however, has been allowed to proceed.

What Happened: The Supreme Court has instructed Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) to continue with the construction of the Joka-Esplanade Metro line, but without cutting or transplanting any trees, as reported by Times of India. The directive was issued by a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan, who also issued notices to the West Bengal government, RVNL, and others seeking their responses to the plea.

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The court’s directive was in response to a plea challenging a previous verdict by the Calcutta High Court, which had permitted the felling or transplantation of trees. The plea was filed by the People United For Better Living in Kolkata (PUBLIC), citing environmental concerns and potential damage to the city’s green lung – the Maidan. The counsel for PUBLIC also informed the court that the railway infra major had not submitted any plans for the survival of transplanted trees or compensatory planting.

RVNL has been instructed by the court to submit a plan detailing how they plan to manage the nearly 950 trees that have been marked for transplantation or felling for the project. The 16.7-km Joka-Esplanade line, which includes a 5.05-km underground stretch, passes through the Maidan, necessitating the construction of three stations and a crossover.

This is not the first time RVNL has faced challenges in its metro construction projects. Earlier in the week, RVNL was forced to make design changes for the Orange Line Metro station at Chinar Park due to pavement encroachment by local eateries in Kolkata.

The encroachment had hindered RVNL from securing an alternate space for traffic movement and had left insufficient room for the construction of two of the four accesses to the Metro station.

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