Ahmedabad Municipal authorities are gearing up to axe 242 trees for a road-widening project on a 1.8-km stretch from Airport Circle to the Indira Bridge junction. This project marks the city’s first public-private partnership (PPP) road-widening initiative.
The AMC plans to widen the existing 45m wide road to 60m. The road expansion along the airport road is necessitated by the high frequency of VVIP movements between the airport and the state capital, Gandhinagar.
The widening of the existing 45m wide road will result in shops losing frontage. Sections of the state forest department’s nursery will have to be sacrificed for the project. In addition to the 242 trees, nearly 100 small shrubs, 100 bamboo trees, and 100 Conacarpus trees will be cut down.
The AMC invited objections to the road expansion. However, all the objections were dismissed. Under the PPP model, the contractor will receive 15-year advertising rights in exchange for developing and maintaining the road. The request for proposal (RFP) for road construction was issued on September 23, 2023, with the tender approval process currently underway. “Of the advertising rights, 25% of the earnings from billboards and other advertising placements will go to the municipal corporation.