The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday made the National Highways Authority of India a respondent in the case related to the controversial tunnel project in Sitabuldi and ordered it to submit its position on the project within two weeks.
The tunnel will be constructed from Institute of Science (Civil Lines) to Manas Chowk (Sitabuldi). The tunnel will be under the highway at Freedom Park intersection. Therefore, the Highway Authority was made a defendant in this case. The court has itself filed a public interest litigation against the project after taking cognizance of the letter of social activist Jaideep Das.
Das has written a letter to the court on March 7, 2024, expressing his opinion that there is no need for this project. The administration is pushing this project in the name of solving the problem of traffic congestion. At present road is available from Institute of Science to Manas Chowk. There is never a traffic jam on that road. Only at the Freedom Park Chowk can one see traffic jams due to traffic signals. he also claimed that crores of rupees will be spent unnecessarily on this project. Hundreds of trees will have to be cut, Das said.