Road construction update

Road construction continues across Auroville, with at least 9 sections of road currently being built. Most of the construction work is being completed by CPWD; Michael Bonke’s team is building one section of the Crown, which starts at Savitri Bhavan and goes towards the PTDC. The total cost of all of the road works that have been tendered by CPWD, according to the government E-Tenders portal, is ₹38 crores ($4.5 million US dollars), with an additional ₹7.6 crores being spent on electrical works. These figures are CPWD estimates, so final costs could be higher or lower.

Large areas of forest have been cleared and as of July 2024 the number of mature trees felled so far is over 6,560, of which more than half had a girth of over 1 metre. Additionally, more than 7,330 trees under 15 cm in girth, and more than 20,860 woody plants from the under storey have been cleared since December 2023. These are only the trees that have been surveyed and counted. Due to the sheer amount of clearing and tree felling taking place, not all tree felling and clearing has been documented. The RA-DC recently wrote a letter to the GB-ATDC with details about how the extensive deforestation in areas such as Darkali and Bliss have led to a substantial increase in surface runoff which “culminated in the breach of the Alankuppam-Kottakarai pond bund, which caused flooding in the downstream villages”.