Bengaluru: The civic body’s proposal to construct a signal-free corridor between Vellara Junction and Hope Farm junction, which will be passing through HAL Airport Road, has caused much worry among residents in surrounding localities. They claim that indiscriminate chopping of trees on the stretch is already under way, even before work on the project is officially yet to begin. At least eight trees were chopped over the past week, residents said.

The project has seen a conflict of interest earlier too. In August last year, residents had protested the felling of 46 trees on this stretch to make way for an underpass near Wind Tunnel Junction, which is part of this project. There was little progress after that.

The 17.5-km stretch signal-free corridor being developed at an estimated cost of ₹109.5 crore with funds from the Nagarothana Scheme and will have three under passes – one each at Wind Tunnel junction, Suranjan Das junction and Kundalahalli junction. On July 9, an MoU was signed between HAL and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

“We were shocked to see that trees were being chopped again, almost overnight. Last year too, the trees were chopped in a similar manner, which led to a spontaneous protest,” said Aravinda Badarinath, resident of Vinayak Nagar. After the protest, the BBMP had promised a public hearing which never took place.

Residents rue the loss of tree cover. “The entire median line of trees between Manipal Hospital and ISRO junction has disappeared. These were not shrubs but Ashoka trees which were planted more than five years ago,” said Prashanth Sham, another resident.

Milan Trivedi, who lives in Vinayak Nagar near HAL Airport Road, said that many people were opposed to the idea of an underpass as it would not do much to ease traffic snarls.

“The underpass will work very well if the roads are wide. Here the roads are not very wide and hence it will just shift the traffic from one junction to another junction. Currently, in peak hours the traffic jam is around one hour at this junction. With an underpass, this will only increase.”

They are now planning to lodge a complaint with the Forest Cell about the indiscriminate felling of trees.

Civic officials said that no permission had been sought from the Forest Cell for the chopping of any trees.

“The cell had asked for an official letter from the project officials concerned. Only after that, the place will be inspected and permission will be granted. As of now, it has not received any letter and no permission has been granted,” an official said, requesting not to be named.