'Not at the cost of trees': PIL filed against Telangana's flyover plan

Upping the ante against the Telangana government's Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP), a public interest litigation petition was filed in the Hyderabad High Court claiming that the project would destroy the ecosystem of the KBR National Park and Durgam Cheruvu in Hyderabad.

Times of India reported:

Lending support to the ongoing `Hyderabad Rising' movement to protect environment, K Purushottam Reddy, a city-based environmentalist, filed the public interest petition questioning the 'in-principle approval' given by the state government for constructing multi-layer flyovers covering 20 junctions in the city.

“We have lost 20,000 fully grown trees for metro rail. The state is now poised to allow tree-felling in the name of development. The SRDP will add more problems to the existing traffic snarls and pollution...Most developed cities have responded to traffic problems by drastically reducing the road space for private vehicles, imposing heavy parking charges, restricting vehicles into core market areas and even demolishing the flyovers," the TOI report quotes the petitioner as saying,

Reddy has urged the court to stay all further proceedings of the project.