The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) has received permission from the Bombay High Court to cut around 20,000 mangrove trees in the city and neighbouring districts of Palghar and Thane for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

Of the 508-km corridor, 156 km of the track lies in Maharashtra, 4 km in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 348 km in Gujarat. Work has proceeded well in other states, but had a sharp slowdown due to land acquisition issues, which have now been resolved and the work is picking up pace. The high-speed train includes a 21-km tunnel, including a 7-km undersea tunnel at Thane Creek. The plea was opposed by ‘Bombay Environmental Action Group’, an NGO, on the grounds that no study was undertaken about the survival rate of saplings to be planted as a compensatory measure and the Environmental Impact Assessment report for felling trees had not been provided. The NHSRCL had denied the objections.