The Chennai Corporation has identified 203 roads for sapling plantation during this northeast monsoon.

Work
on most of the roads will be completed in a month. “Initially, we had
identified 100 roads in the first phase this year. But the number of
roads has been increased to 203 as per the revised list,” said an
official.

Of the 23,000 saplings proposed this year, 6,000 have
been planted along roads in areas such as Madhavaram and Sholinganallur.
Work on important roads such as Anna Nagar Second Avenue, Tank Bund
Road, R.K. Mutt Road, College Road, Haddows Road, Arcot Road, P.T. Rajan
Salai, Rajamannar Salai, Mount Poonamalle Road, East Coast Road, Sardar
Patel Road, Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Perambur High Road, Kolathur Main Road,
Paper Mills Road and Pulianthope High Road will be taken up shortly.

For
example, in Anna Nagar Second Avenue, 70 saplings will be planted this
month. The Corporation is also facing another challenge — commercial
establishments along the roads are unwilling to plant trees near their
premises for fear that this might conceal their boards and signs.

According
to the revised proposal, Ennore High Road will get 800 tree saplings,
Inner Ring Road in Manali will get 750, Paper Mills Road will get 500
and Kolathur Main Road will get 300.

Core city areas

But
roads in the core city areas will get fewer trees because of inadequate
space. For example, Corporation officials have been able to identify
just 50 spots for planting saplings along the Valluvar Kottam High Road
where a large number of commercial establishments have been located.
Sterling Road will also get 50 saplings.

The project was begun to increase city’s green cover from 14.9% to 20.2%.