NICE has not complied with environmental clearance norms?

NICE has not complied with environmental clearance norms?

The Hindu

Only expressway has MoEF clearance. Townships are yet to get the go-ahead

BANGALORE: In the rush to retrieve or reclaim the "excess" 2,450 acres of land given to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd. (NICE), the Government appears to have overlooked the fact that NICE has failed on several counts when it comes to compliance with environmental clearance norms.

When the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) cleared only the expressway-road component of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project on August 8, 2001, it imposed several specific and general conditions to ensure environmental safeguards.

The four-page letter communicating the clearance and the dos and don'ts notes that the project involves construction of 111 km long tolled expressway, 41 km long tolled outer peripheral road connecting National Highway 4 and National Highway 7; a 9.1 km link road connection the expressway to downtown Bangalore; a 3.1 km long elevated section of the link road, five townships a power plant and other associated infrastructure facilities.

This clearance was granted as per the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 1994, with subsequent amendments, for the road and expressway component. Since the power requirement in the initial stages was to be met through KPTCL and Hospet Power Ltd., the environmental clearance for the power plant was to be obtained at a later date.

The letter is emphatic that "the scope of the project for the purpose of the clearance under reference is limited to the road-expressway component of the BMIC project."

It is also noted that though the total land requirement is estimated to be 20,193 acres, 4,076 acres is the requirement for the expressway alone. This includes 168 acres of forest land. As per EIA clearance norms, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) conducted the public hearing for this project in Mysore (June 30, 2000), Mandya (July 3, 2000) and Bangalore July 5, 2000. The total cost of the project was pegged at Rs. 1,930 crore. Water requirement, to be met from the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, is estimated at 470 cu. m with a peak demand of 560 cu. m per day. About 1,320 families were estimated to be displaced by the project, and their resettlement and rehabilitation would be as per plans approved by the State Government.

Three years after this clearance was given, the EIA norms were amended, and new construction projects and industrial estates were brought under the purview of the EIA notification dated July 7, 2004. A communication from the MoEF to NICE on August 8, 2004, made it clear the company must take prior approval of the MoEF for the development of the proposed five townships as per the new notification.

NICE, however, maintains that the first clearance includes the townships and there is no need to seek fresh clearance. NICE sources told The Hindu that they sent a response to the MoEF within two weeks of receiving the communication on the amended EIA notification. However, MoEF sources clarified that NICE has to go through the public hearing and other procedures for getting the clearance for the townships.

It also turns out that the Public Works Department has not been monitoring the project and its progress, from the environment angle, and the rehabilitation and compensation perspective.

MoEF needs to receive a compliance report from NICE every three months, but not a single report has been filed so far. The KSPCB, too, has not so far initiated the process to hold public hearings and follow the norms before granting no-objection certificate for the townships.