Smart City work, a threat to Pondy Bazaar’s green cover?

The upcoming Pedestrian Plaza on Theyagaraya Road is being taken up at a cost of Rs 33.80 crores, to improve the 1.45 km stretch of the vehicle-choked road into a haven for pedestrians and cyclists to promote Greater Chennai Corporation’s Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) policy. 

As the construction works are going on, the residents are worried if the plaza will come at a cost of losing the area’s decadesold tree cover. Activist Narayanan A, Director, Change India, said that T Nagar, which is a heavily commercial locality, has a green space, which keeps a check on pollution. 

“Digging up the road has been taken up without microlevel planning and sensitive consideration for the large, ageold trees in Pondy Bazaar area has now exposed the roots of the trees, weakening the support system which will eventually lead to the death of the giants. Due to the indiscriminate digging, the trees will get uprooted even by moderate gusts of wind. We demand that the Corporation stop this work immediately and do an environmental impact assessment and tree count. The work should be continued with the help of ecology experts, who will ensure that these trees are protected during the ongoing works,” said the activist, adding that several complaints have been made to the Corporation officials. 

A Smart City official pointed out that precautions have been taken to ensure that trees are not affected during the execution of the various Smart City projects. 

“When we were redesigning the roads in T Nagar, we had included inputs from the residents, who were eventually happy that the trees on their roads were given protective guards and rainwater harvesting structures. 

On principle, the Smart City projects are designed to include the trees – which are critical to the Pedestrian Plaza. In fact, in places where there is no tree cover, Corporation will be adding more trees,” said the official.