Mumbai’s BMC Tree Authority has approved proposals to cut 253 trees and transplant 204 others for four infrastructure and institutional projects, including a new clear water pumping station in Bhandup West, works at KEM Hospital and Central Railway’s fifth and sixth lines project.
The largest proposal concerns the construction of a clear water pumping station in Bhandup West with a planned capacity of 2,000 million litres per day. The project will require 184 trees to be cut and 150 to be transplanted, while the remaining trees at the site are proposed to be retained.
The pumping station is one of the civic infrastructure projects covered by the Tree Authority’s decision reported by the Times of India. The proposal links the loss and relocation of trees to the expansion of Mumbai’s water-supply infrastructure, although the supplied report does not specify the project’s construction timeline or the proposed sites for transplantation.
At KEM Hospital in Parel, a proposal for demolishing an existing structure and constructing a new staff building covers 196 trees. Of these, 28 have been proposed for removal and 22 for transplantation. The remaining 146 trees are proposed to be retained at the hospital campus.
Another proposal relates to a workshop in Matunga required for Central Railway’s fifth and sixth lines project between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Kurla. The work will affect 42 trees, with 29 proposed for removal and 13 for transplantation. The report does not provide further details on the workshop’s design, construction schedule or the stage of the railway project.
At the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre campus in Trombay, proposed construction on the northern side will affect 71 of the 86 trees at the site. The proposal provides for 12 trees to be removed and 19 to be transplanted. The supplied report does not specify the treatment proposed for the other trees affected by the construction.
Together, the four proposals account for 253 trees marked for removal and 204 identified for transplantation. The decisions place projects serving water supply, hospital administration, railway expansion and institutional construction within the civic tree-clearance process.
The approvals also show that the impact is distributed across different parts of Mumbai and across projects with different public functions. Bhandup West accounts for the largest share of the proposed tree removal and transplantation, while the railway-related proposal in Matunga involves trees located in the path of a workshop linked to additional rail lines. No details were provided in the supplied report about compensatory plantation, transplantation success monitoring, safeguards during construction or the next implementation steps.
The BMC Tree Authority’s clearance allows the proposals to proceed within the tree-related approval process. The report does not state when tree removal, transplantation or construction will begin, nor does it include responses from residents, project agencies or environmental groups.
