The Gurgaon administration has joined hands with real estate giant DlF to develop green cover for the city. A total of 43 acres of land will be developed as a green belt along the 10.2 km of roads in areas surrounding NH-8 to Sector-56 in the city.
The project includes creating a world class 10.2 km road from NH-8 via DlF Cyber City and Golf Course road to Sector-56 with special focus on environment. International standards of landscaping will be done and more than 25,000 trees will be planted along the entire stretch.
The project is estimated to cost around Rs 600 crore. The work has been outsourced to an international agency AECOM, which has done the landscaping of internationally acclaimed 31st Street Harbor, Bloomington Central Station Park etc. The Indira Gandhi International Airport too is another example of AECOM landscaping. "The project will have evergreen and ornamental trees. Trees like Alstonia, Champa, Papri, Arjun etc will be the common trees along the stretch. The forest department has given permission to cut 1,055 trees but the actual number of trees felled was only 703. The law says that the compensatory plantation should be done 10 times of each tree felled. The project team has already planted 10,300 big saplings at different locations advised by the state authorities" said a spokesperson, DlF.
The locations of these compensatory plantations are Sector 9A, Smriti Park, Sector 91-92 green belt and village Chandu Khera. "The sector road is scheduled for completion in March 2015. It will have six underpasses, 16 lane roads and a flyover to ensure signal free travel. It will minimize the travelling time and ensure a comfortable ride within 7 to 8 minutes from NH-8 to Sector-56 which now takes an hour on the same route" he added.