Supreme Court To Hear BMC Plea On Tree Felling For GMLR

23 Oct 2025 CW Team

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to consider listing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plea seeking permission to fell additional trees for the Goregaon–Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project, subject to conditions on compensatory afforestation.

The court had earlier, on 14 August, allowed the BMC’s tree authority to cut 95 trees for the project. On Thursday, BMC’s counsel informed a bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran that more trees need to be felled, and urged that the matter be heard soon to avoid further delays. The bench agreed to consider listing the plea for hearing.

The GMLR project, one of Mumbai’s key infrastructure initiatives, is designed to link the Western Express Highway with the Eastern Express Highway, cutting travel time between Goregaon and Mulund by nearly one hour.

The BMC, which is implementing the project, had earlier assured the court that it would strictly comply with compensatory afforestation norms, including the geo-tagging of saplings planted to replace the trees cut for construction.

Once completed, the Rs 130 billion GMLR project is expected to improve east–west road connectivity, ease congestion on arterial routes, and enhance intra-city travel efficiency across Mumbai’s suburbs.

Infrastructure Urban

09 Apr 2026

Mineral Auction Rules Amended To Speed Mine Operationalisation

The Ministry of Mines notified the Mineral (Auction) Second Amendment Rules, 2026 on 30 March 2026 to accelerate operationalisation of mines and improve ease of doing business in the mining sector. The amendment follows a prior change to the Mineral (Auction) Rules, 2015 effected on 17 October 2025 that introduced intermediary timelines between issuance of a letter of intent (LoI) and execution of the mining lease. The 2025 change provided that one per cent of performance security would be appropriated for each month of delay by the preferred bidder and introduced incentives for early operatio..

Indian Railways Strengthens Telecom And AI Safety Systems

Indian Railways strengthened its telecom and digital infrastructure during 2025-26 with the aim of improving safety, operational efficiency and the passenger experience. The programme promoted modernisation through advanced technologies, robust communication systems and passenger-centric solutions. These measures were presented as part of a drive to build a digitally integrated rail ecosystem. A key development was the enhancement of the Internet Protocol Multi-Protocol Label Switching (IP MPLS) backbone, commissioned at 1,396 stations to meet bandwidth needs of mission-critical applications. ..

NHAI Holds Workshop on Litigation Management and Coordination

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) organised a day-long workshop in New Delhi to strengthen capacity and interdepartmental synergy for faster execution of national highway projects. The event was held under Mission Karmayogi – Sadhana Saptah, an initiative of the Government of India to enhance governance through capacity building and improved processes. The workshop focused on structured and solution oriented deliberations to address implementation constraints. The session was chaired by the NHAI chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav and brought together senior officials from NHAI, the M..