The local government of London
has an approved plan to construct a car tunnel under the Thames river to link
the south and east of the city. The plan envisages reducing the congestion
providing an alternate route to move from eastern part to the southern part in
less time and without any traffic jam. The project will also boost local
economy by creating new jobs and give a push to construction sector.
However, environmentalists have
quite a differing opinion about this new development project. They call it a willful
mistake to raise the load of air pollution just to smoothen the flow of the traffic.
If this tunnel is constructed – they opine -
the people living around the tunnel area have to inhale smoke emissions
of 30,000 more vehicles than the quantity they are suffering from now. They say
the Town Planners are no doubt serious to solve the traffic problem of the city
but are simultaneously enhancing its air pollution problem.
The plan of new Thames tunnel
aims to build a dual carriageway tunnel starting near the Dome on the south
bank of the river and emerging on the north side in Tower Hamlets with a cost
of one billion pounds. The feasibility of the project is done and work on it
would start by next year.
But a vocal civil society of
London has demanded to developers and planners of London to make it a
sustainable project keeping in full view of the environmental aspect. By
constructing this tunnel it is correct that time and fuel can be saved and
people can avoid undue botheration because of the traffic jams but in return
they have to suffer from the air pollution that directly affects their
respiratory health.
Some environmentalists also
predicted that if this tunnel is erected then people living near the tunnel particularly
and all Londoners generally would have reduced lungs because of the air
pollution. When lungs have to use more force to inhale oxygen in a suffocating
environment due to air pollution the size of their lungs reduces noticeably.
Even if they shift from the polluted place to a safer one even then their lungs
will not come back to the previous size.
It may be recalled that last year
4,300 people were died in London because of the direct or indirect effects of
the air pollution. If the flow of traffic is smoothen further to facilitate
their plying for a longer period of time on roads it is possible that after this
tunnel the death count shoot up further. Apart from deaths, the number of
people who are suffering from other fatal diseases is not exactly known because
air pollution is termed one of the causes of a disease and is not solely held
responsible.
Environmentalists are of the view that instead
of accommodating the load of traffic over the roads of London by helping them
save time and fuel, local government should devise a plan to just reduce the
load of traffic. This can be done by providing more facilities in public
transport and raising its volume to serve more and more commuters. They believe
with the same cost London administration can devise an alternative plan fully
suitable for the traffic and against the traffic pollution.
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