BMRCL rules out change in project alignment

BMRCL rules out change in project alignment

Staff Reporter

A group of residents has moved court against Metro project

BMRCL says project will not affect temples

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has not only ruled out any change in the alignment of the Metro project, but also said that there is no need for obtaining environmental clearance for it.

BMRCL made this submission in a statement of objections before the Karnataka High Court when a petition by Madhava and other residents of CMH Road in Indiranagar, who have challenged the project, came up for hearing.

The petitioners said the project had not been environmentally cleared and that it was not taken up under the Indian Railways Act, but under the Mysore Tramways Act. They also apprehended that the project would damage the Kumaraswamy and Somaeshwara Temples in Bangalore.

In its objections, BMRCL said the Metro project, taken up under the Tramways Act, did not need environmental sanction.

It said schedule 1 of the Environmental Protection Act, 1986, and the Environmental Impact Assessment notification of 1994 had listed 30 projects that need not obtain environmental clearance. Schedule 1 of the notification did not include a project of mass-based rapid transport system like that of a metro rail obtaining clearance.

Moreover, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, in a letter on April 11, 2005, had clarified that the rail-based Mass Rapid Transport System being taken up in Bangalore did not attract the provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment notification.

However, a detailed project report and environmental impact and assessment study had been taken up and it had studied the environmental aspects of the Metro Rail.

The Department of Environmental Sciences, Bangalore University, had also taken up a study on the environmental impact of Metro project. In its report, the department said that the project was environmentally sound and also sustainable.

BMRCL rejected allegations by the petitioners that the project would affect the Kumaraswamy and Someshwara temples.