BMIC project faces environmental roadblock

BMIC project faces environmental roadblock

The Hindu

BANGALORE, SEPT. 13. The Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMIC) could become the first casualty of the recent amendment to the environment impact assessment (EIA) notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forests by which projects of over Rs. 50 crores will have to obtain clearance from the Ministry.

The Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), which has been entrusted with the execution of the project, is likely to lose the environmental clearance granted for the expressway component by the Ministry in August 2001, as it has changed the nature of the project and not complied with conditions imposed.

Controversial project

NICE is under the scanner now along with the BMIC project coordinator in the Public Works Department for seeking the notification of 6,319 acres of excess land and changing the alignment of roads from what had been originally sanctioned. The project involves the construction of over five urban centres and an expressway between Bangalore and Mysore (distance 140 km), and has remained controversial since inception. The project involves large-scale displacement of farmers and destruction of farmland, forests and common lands.

The Government is widening the Bangalore Mysore highway, and the Railways are doubling the track, making the BMIC project "an atrociously wasteful and clearly unjust development," according to Leo F. Saldanha, of Environment Support Group, which has monitored its progress and alerted the Ministry about alleged irregularities by the promoters.

RBI norms

The project is mooted by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise, a consortium of the little known SAB Engineering (Philadelphia), VHB Inc. (Boston) and Kalyani Group (India). VHB has vehemently denied its involvement, but NICE claims it is an integral part. The project has secured funds from ICICI Bank, and whether it is in compliance with the directives of the Reserve Bank of India is also being questioned. The amendment to the EIA notification of the Ministry, issued as per the Environment Protection Act, on July 7, 2004 (No. S.O. 801(E), makes it clear that: any construction project falling under entry 31 (i.e. new construction projects) of Schedule-I (of the EIA notification), including new townships, industrial townships, settlement colonies, commercial complexes, hotel complexes, hospitals and office complexes for 1,000 persons or more, or discharging sewage of 50,000 litres a day or more, or with an investment of Rs. 50 crores or more, should obtain environmental clearance from the Ministry. This is particularly the case of "(n)ew construction projects... undertaken without obtaining the clearance required under this notification, and where construction work has not come up to the plinth level, ... with effect from the 7th day of July, 2004." Thus, NICE would have to prepare a fresh and comprehensive environmental and social impact assessment, sources in the Department of Environment and Ecology, told The Hindu .

This document will have to be released to the public along with other related documents, based on which public hearings will have to be called by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to set in motion the environmental clearance mechanism.

That will take at least a year, and NICE will have to obtain fresh clearances under Water and Air Acts from the board and the Ministry.