PANAJI
The Central Empowered Committee set up by the Supreme Court to hear matters relating to the environment will conduct a site inspection in the areas likely to be affected by the three infrastructure projects that will cut through the Western Ghats sometime in January, the Committee has said.
The CEC, which has held two preliminary hearings in the complaints filed by the Goa Foundation, has also made some prima facie observations and asked the government agencies to explain with compelling reasons why they wish to justify the projects through the protected forest area especially since it will come at a huge cost to the environment.
Online hearings were held on December 11 and 14 in which the members of the CEC sought answers from the responding agencies which included the Goa Forest Department, the Goa PWD, which has plans to expand the highway, as well as the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) which is constructing the railway line.
At the hearing, the CEC expressed a willingness to visit the state for the site inspection of the three project areas sometime in January.
It emerged in the hearings that the new railway line was being built on the hillward side of the existing line and would require the cutting and removal of about 10-lakh cubic metres of mud of which 5.59 lakh cubic metres will have to be dumped while the rest will be used to build the line.
“Abandon this part if you can... why didn’t you consider a corridor in a different stretch? Konkan Railways underutilized so many other routes, this is such an inefficient line… larger issues involved here… please look at it carefully. What is the demand of Goa? We want to be enlightened as to what we have missed… Area is very sensitive … if you want to pierce the Ghats, you must have an exceptional reason… What does Goa want? Convince us,” the committee was quoted as having asked the railway authorities when the railway project was being heard.
The CEC also had questions about the Karnataka government deciding to drop the highway expansion through the protected areas within its stretches of the highways but wondered why the Goa side of the same highway was being pushed through.
In relation to the Tanmar project, the CEC was told that there were alternatives available for the alignment which did not require it to be taken through the Wildlife Sanctuary. She said she would bring these documents on record.
The complaint alleges that none of the 3 projects can go through the Wildlife Sanctuary in view of Section 29 and Section 35 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 which explicitly forbid any development in any sanctuary unless it is certified that the development is in the interest of wildlife or improvement of the wildlife habitat.
