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Trees fall victim to city road scheme

100 already cut down, 900 more to go

PINAKI ROY
The authorities are removing parts of the remaining greens in the capital late in the night as part of a road-widening project.
Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP) of the city corporation is felling the trees along the road from Bijoy Sarani fountain to Banani level crossing in the dark.
The DUTP workers have already cut down about 100 trees in the last few days. Different government departments had planted the trees at the call of the prime minister a few years ago.
Environmentalists fear the authorities will fell about 1,000 trees, mostly devdaru, acacia and eucalyptus, due to lack of long-term planning.
“We are extending the airport road from six to eight lanes and we have to remove some trees. But we want to save some of those,” said DUTP Director Syed Kudrat Ullah.
The authorities have however shown no intention of saving any of the roadside trees. They have marked white all the trees along the road to be cut down under the Tk 18 crore project scheduled to be complete by June next year.
“We have been directed to cut down all the white marked trees,” a
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worker told The Daily Star at 2:00am yesterday.
“We have been asked to work only after midnight,” added the worker, who along with his fellows was sawing trees near the naval office on airport road.
The DUTP director said, “We will also carry out some beautification work of and by the road. We will knock down some old walls and reconstruct them after extending the road.
“We will decorate the roadside walls with pieces of art. Besides, we'll build footpaths where space is available. It is a huge and very good project.”
He assured that they would plant trees again by the extended road.
Regarding bio-diversity expert Prof Anawarul Islam said there is no alternative to road extension, but the authorities should have thought about its impact on the environmental.
“They had earlier felled trees to widen the same road without thinking much about the future. Had they thought of today's scenario, they would not have to cut down trees again.
“The authorities should compensate the removal of trees by fresh plantation.”
DUTP sources said the project will widen the airport road by 3.5 meters on both sides.
Twelve government and autonomous bodies including Biman, army, nave, tourism, civil aviation, Desa, Wasa, T&T, Roads and Highway Department have allocated roadside land for the project.