Purple Line: RVNL saves 41 trees coming in way of station, TBM shaft
Times of India | 5 August 2024
Kolkata: RVNL has managed to save seven trees while working on the ground to construct the Purple line’s Victoria Memorial station and 34 others while building the tunnel boring machine’s launching shaft inside St Thomas School.
Since the Army is the custodian of the Maidan, a survey by the local military authority LMA under the ministry of defence (MoD) revealed that 673 trees are required to be transplanted for permanent construction of the 5km underground stretch of the Joka-Esplanade corridor.Another 273 trees will have to be transplanted to create a temporary working area for mobilizing trailers and heavy construction equipment like cranes and so on). Therefore, in all 946 trees are required to be transplanted. Around 40 of these have already been spared at the start of the construction work.
Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), implementing agency of the Joka-Esplanade (Purple) line, has successfully transplanted 22 trees instead of the originally estimated 29. It has also saved 34 full-grown trees while constructing the launching shaft for the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) inside St Thomas School.
Even as the state forest had approved felling of 29 trees opposite Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH), at the very onset of excavation, RVNL managed to save one and drew up a transplantation plan for 28 trees at Kamardanga near Beliaghata. But working on the ground, it saved another six full grown trees. The trees saved at the stretch of Maidan opposite VMH for construction of the Metro station include full-grown babla, aswattha, banyan and sal.
“Originally, 84 trees were supposed to be felled inside St Thomas School for the TBM launching shaft. We were able to cut down the number to 50,” the official said.
TOI on Friday reported that construction of the Purple line’s Park Street Metro station has started. The Army’s survey has estimated that 184 trees will have to make way for the metro station. So far, RVNL has transplanted 55 full-grown trees from this spot at Kamardanga. “Every effort will be made to save some trees at this site as well,” the Railways official said.
RVNL had adopted a simple way: trimming them as much as possible so that they don’t come in the way of the construction or movement of heavy equipment. “We have already saved quite a few trees this way. The leaves will grow back and flourish once the metro work is over,” said an official.