Minsk Citizens From Tsentralnaia Street Went On A Spontaneous Rally

People demand to stop cutting down trees.

Residents of houses on Tsentralnaia Street in Minsk were unpleasantly surprised at the end of last week: a mass felling of trees began in their yards. It turned out that they cut down the trees to clear the space for laying of the heating main. Today people are going to demand to stop cutting down the trees, tut.by reports.

– They are going to modernize the heating main, which runs under the road. According to the construction plan, they won't touch the road and will lay new pipes under the green zone. Which means that they will cut down 60 deciduous trees, 43 coniferous trees, 25 fruit trees and shrubs. In return they want to plant about 19 conifers, 4 oak trees, 16 shrubs and 16 junipers. We have trees growing here, which our parents planted when they were kids," – the local resident Aliaksandr says.

Local residents are outraged by this desire to save: to cut down trees to keep the asphalt safe.

Employees of Zelenstroy of Zavodskoy district explained that the trees are cut down because the heating main runs under the green zone. And such a decision was made when developing the plan for the modernization of the heating main.

– We are the final link in this chain, we have won the tender and carry out the work now. The decision to cut down the trees to repair the heating main was taken during the development of the project. We took this as a reality, – the employees of Zelenstroy of Zavodskoy district say. – According to the plan, the heating main runs under the green zone and the designers should have taken the decision to bypass the zone. We only carry out the work.

According to the plan, they will cut 135 trees and 358 shrubs. Instead of cut trees, they will do compensatory planting: they will pant an average of three new trees for each cut tree. They have already planted part of trees –150 trees –,they will plant rest part of trees in the autumn. In total - 298 trees and 498 shrubs.

They plan to cut these trees down as well.

But people say: trees have been growing here for 50 years already - it is obvious that they do not grow over the old heating main.

Today the people got confirmation: yes, the old heating main runs under the road and the trees are cut down for a new one.

– We plan to lay a heating main line, we will cut down the trees according to the plan. It will be a new heating main, not the repair of the old one, – the construction site supervisor Aleh Mazaliaka said to the people. – We are just executors, we are doing everything under the plan and the agreement.

The construction site supervisor explains: the customer took the decision to cut down the trees.

After the call to the leadership, the construction site supervisor said that representatives of the project's customer – Minskenergospetsremont – would come to people within half an hour.

Meanwhile, people are signing collective appeals demanding not to worsen the ecology of this area and to revise the project.