India, March 24 -- The proposed six-lane, access-controlled 30-km highway connecting Jawaharlal Nehru Port with the Mumbai-Pune and the Mumbai-Goa highways will require diversion of over 24 hectares of forest land and involve the felling of at least 11,500 trees. It will pass through 18.27 hectares of water bodies, 1.7 hectares of wetland, and the Karanja creek, which is categorised as an eco-sensitive zone, show minutes of Wednesday's union cabinet meeting where the project was approved.

The minutes - uploaded the Parivesh portal under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change - state that the proposed highway will require approximately 175.914 hectares of land including 70 hectares of agricultural land. It will be develope...