The Thane Coastal Road-2 will go ahead on its original route through the buffer zone of the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary, affecting 3,754 mangroves, after the state’s coastal zone authority dropped its demand for a realignment.

The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) sent the project back in August, asking the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to look for an alignment that would do less damage to the mangroves and the sanctuary’s eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). The MMRDA said there wasn’t one. On September 24, at its 202nd meeting, the MCZMA cleared the project with the alignment unchanged, subject to compliance with Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules.

The Thane Coastal Road-2 will go ahead on its original route through the buffer zone of the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary, (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)

The affected mangroves are spread over 12 hectares in the ESZ, the protected buffer around the sanctuary.…