Regardless of what the present imbroglio over the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project results in, one thing is certain: the project will now have to undergo a comprehensive and fresh review of its environmental and social impacts following a recent amendment to the Environment Impact Assessment Notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Further, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) is likely to lose the controversial environmental clearance granted for the expressway component by MoEF in August 2001, as it has both changed the nature of the project from what was originally proposed (which is not allowed at all), and has not complied conditions imposed.
The amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification of MoEF, issued per the Environment Protection Act, on 7th July 2004 (No. S.O.801(E)), available online at: http://www.envfor.nic.in/legis/eia/so801(e).doc requires:
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 (one thousand) persons or more or discharging sewage of 50,000 (fifty thousand) litres per day or more or with an investment of Rs.50,00,00,000/- (Rupees fifty crores) or more, should obtain environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, per procedure.
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.”. Further, “(a)ny project proponent intending to implement the proposed project under sub-paras (g) and (h) in a phased manner or in modules, shall be required to submit the details of the entire project covering all phases or modules for appraisal under this notification”;
BMIC
involves the construction of an expressway and 5 major townships (including
real estate, recreational, hospitality, health and industrial estates) which
independently and together come under the jurisdiction of this notification.
As a result:
1) Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) would have to prepare and
submit a comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (EIA). This
document will have to be released to the public along with other related documentation,
based on which Public Hearings would have to be called by Karnataka State
Pollution Control Board to kick off the environmental clearance mechanism.
2) Following this procedure, which is likely to take a minimum of two years
(an EIA takes at least one year to prepare), NICE would then have to seek
fresh clearances under the Water and Air Acts from the Karnataka State Pollution
Control Board and the Ministry of Environment and Forests. This procedure
normally takes a minimum of six months, if all documents are submitted and
procedures complied with.
NICE received a conditional clearance for only expressway component of the project during August 2001, and this on the questionable basis of “adjourned Public Hearing held on 30 June 200, 3 July 200 and 5 July 200on in Myrore, Mandya and Bangalore”, as confirmed by KSPCB. Procedural and gross human rights violations marked these hearings, when affected communities and NGOs, including Environment Support Group, raised the issue that all documentation submitted was fraudulent. This constituted sufficient ground then to not grant the project clearance, a demand that was clearly overlooked. (The clearance document is available online at: http://www.esgindia.org/campaigns/bmic/docs/docs.html#Env
In addition to grossly changing the nature of the project it originally proposed, and illegally acquiring more land than was originally notified (a most disturbing fact indeed), NICE has not in the least complied with any of the conditions imposed in the clearance. This is a clear ground for revocation of clearance granted.
Based on representations by Environment Support Group, Ministry of Environment and Forests have now written to NICE stating that they would have to comply with the fresh notification comprehensively.
With this in view, it would be imperative for the State Government to stop ongoing activity on the project forthwith, and save acute suffering it is causing affected families and communities, and in the process destroying environmentally sensitive areas, including forests.
Leo F. Saldanha Rajmohan
Pillai
Environment Support Group ®
S-3, Rajashree Apartments, 18/57, 1st Main Road, S. R. K. Gardens,
Jayanagar, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560041. INDIA
Tel: 91-80-26534364/26531339/26534364 Telefax: 91-80-26341977
Email: esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in Web: www.esgindia.org