The district forest department will plant saplings on various roads of Dhanbad, including the 20km stretch of Kakomath-Gol Building Road that is being widened to eight lanes at the cost of Rs 416 crore by the State Highways Authority of Jharkhand.

Other places where the greening will take place include the 5.5km stretch between the City Center and Barwaddah Road that was broadened at a cost of Rs 34.71 crore last year by road construction department, the 25.72km stretch between Bank Mor and Sindri Road broadened at a cost of Rs 44.83 crore by the road construction department in 2017, and the 32.75km Govindpur-Mahuda Road that is being widened into four lanes by the State Highways Authority of Jharkhand at a cost of Rs 180 crore.

Confirming the development, district forest officer Vimal Lakra said: “Saplings will be planted to compensate for trees felled by different agencies for widening roads. We will begin the plantation from the sidelines of City Center-Barwaddah Road where 417 trees were felled. Here, 1,100 saplings will be planted.”

He added that there were talks on since last year at inter-departmental levels on who will carry out plantation work, there was no ambiguity with regard to its funding, Lakra said.

“For plantation work, as per the laid norms, the funding is the onus of the agency involved in road broadening or construction. But as the agencies involved in road construction work lack the expertise in plantation it has been finally decided that forest department will do the job,” Lakra said.

A reliable source said that they would begin planting saplings as soon as they got the funds.

“As soon as funds are transferred to us by the road construction department, we will start the job at City Center-Barwaddah Road,” he said.

Lakra added that it was a difficult task to find so much vacant land within the town to carry out plantation work. “But we will focus on playgrounds of institutions like schools and colleges, as well as grounds of government offices, hospitals, etc, though we have to get the NoC of respective institutions.”

HC on saplings

The number of saplings to be planted to compensate for trees felled during road construction or broadening has been decided by a committee constituted by the high court.

For instance, for the stretch between Bank Mor and Sindri Road, where 54 trees had been axed, 540 saplings are to be planted; Govindpur-Mahuda Road where 3,142 trees were felled, 6,284 saplings are to be planted, for Kakomath-Gol Building Road where 5,088 trees are to be cut down in all, 10,176 saplings are be planted.