NASHIK: The widening of the Nashik-Pune highway (NH 50) from Sinnar Phata to Darna river , which has been pending for over two years, has been taken up after the Bombay high court gave the green signal to cut the trees coming in its way.Senior officials of the NHD said that cutting of the trees has started and that actual road-widening work would begin after that. The work is expected to be completed by March next year.Justices S S Kemkar and Sarang Kotwal of the high court, in its September 14 order, allowed the cutting of 212 live trees, transplant 99 trees and cut nine dead trees that are potentially dangerous for motorists. The court directed the PWD to submit a compliance report in the first week of April next year.Tejesh Dande, the lawyer of petitioner Hrishikesh Arun Nazre who had moved the court against the cutting of the trees, said that National Highway Division (NHD) has to comply with the directives of the court about transplanting and planting trees.This stretch of the highway is now only seven metres wide, and commuters face a tough time navigating it. It will be converted into a four-lane stretch with a five-meter wide median. A service road of 5.50 metres width will also be laid.the NHD officials said 1,000 trees have been planted to compensate for the trees that will be cut. The officials had to earlier submit an undertaking in the HC on this.The widening of the stretch from Sinnar Phata to Sinnar on NH 50 began in May 2015, but the widening of the stretch between Sinnar Phata and Darna river was held up after the petition against tree-cutting was filed.Meanwhile, the stretch from Darna River to Sinnar was thrown open to vehicular traffic in November last year and the Nashik-Sinnar Tollways also started collecting toll at the Shinde toll plaza after having completed 80% of the work.On HC directives, a team from the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Neeri) visited the stretch that had not been widened, conducted a survey and submitted a report to the court.The NHD officials said that after Neeri submitted its report, they had given an undertaking to the court that they would plant trees to compensate for those that would be hacked. The officials said that of the 320 trees to be cut, nine were dead. The highways division decided to transplant 99 trees. The remaining ones will face the axe.The officials added that the HC had instructed them to plant 1,000 trees before taking up the process of cutting the trees, which they did on the stretch between Darna river and Shinde toll plaza. The work of cutting the trees was taken up only after that.Vivek Malunde, executive engineer of NHD, Nashik , said, "After fulfilling the conditions laid down by the HC, the work of hacking the trees along the road has been taken up. Our attempt will be to wrap up the road construction work by March next year.""Before taking up the work, 1,000 trees were planted near the Darna river bridge. Another 500 trees will be planted in the road divider when the work on the stretch of the highway is complete while 500 saplings will be planted on either side of the completed stretch," said Malunde.The widening of the road will be a huge relief for people residing on either side of the stretch as they have been risking their lives in view of the ever rising vehicular traffic.

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