Following court direction, the petitioner activist, a forest range officer and a BMC officer visited the proposed cycle track site at SGNP for joint inspection on Wednesday. The photographs of the inspection were submitted which showed that the cycle track was on the other side of the forest.
The remarks from the minister come amid reports of an ambitious 40-km cycle track project in Mumbai not taking off. Also, the existing cycle tracks are seeing few cyclists as they were apparently built without proper planning.
The petition states that the same is illegal and unauthorised as it poses serious hazards to the lake ecosystem and falls foul of the provisions of the Guidelines for implementation of the Wetlands.
Concerned Mumbaikars are once again up in arms against the decision, vowing to hit the streets and do whatever it takes to force the new Eknath Shinde government to reconsider its decision.