Green Clearance

In our country for any big project including infra projects, it has become mandatory to get clearance from Ministry of Environment & Forest ( MOEF). And MOEF has become the most dreaded word in the development business. You will recall, when Ms Jayanti Natrajan was Environment Minister in UPA 2 govt, most of the big projects were stalled because of clearance from the ministry. It was saying in those days, unless you pay Natrajan tax your file will not be cleared by MOEF. And after she was shifted from this ministry, the files started moving.

It is but natural that when ever some project comes up, it will need a land, and for big and infra projects land requirement is quite large. For examples if you want to construct highways, the land will have to acquired for the length of highway, and it is obvious that the land will be either agricultural land or forest land.  On the top of this there are umpteen NGOs who on the drop of hat will file PIL in the court raising their objection regarding the acquirement of land for these projects. Along with MOEF , you will have to face  National Green Tribunal (NGT) which has branches in all the states, and they will be the first one put hinderance to the  project. I can quote numerous projects who get delayed because of delay in getting clearance from MOEF and NGT.

In every big city you will find Consultants, who are dealing in this MOEF clearance business. The problem is if you do not appoint the Consultant, you may not be able to even submit the application in the format required by MOEF. Now in all the big cities when a developer starts a bif/infra projects along with Architect, Structural, MEP consultants , he also engages MOEF Consultant.

We all are aware though the print media the controversies regarding MOEF clearances, I am giving below two controversies which are related to big infra projects in Mumbai:

1. Mumbi Metro 3 Project- This Metro Rail project  which starts from Colaba in south Mumbai and ends at Seepz area in Andheri East, a distance of about 33 Kms. As the project is totally under ground railway system, the only land area required for Car shed, where trains are parked when not in operations, ie mainly in late hours of night. For this car shed many areas were explored but in the end it was decided that car shed in Aaarey Milk colony area will be the most suitable from the operational point of view. As the Aarey is  mostly termed as green and forest area, MOEF, NGT came into picture and along with them there are numerous NGOs, who started opposing this car shed stating that it will destroy the ecology balance of the area, stating that Aarey Milk Colony and  adjoining National Park area are the 2 major green areas left in city hence construction should not be allowed. Last year Maharashtra govt declared that Car shed will come up in Aarey and accordingly Mumbai Metro Railway Corporation(MMRC) allowed the Contractors to start the car shed work. Now there is a news that last year Pune branch of NGT had given the order that no construction to be allowed in Aarey for this car shed, now even NGT has ordered that till 10 July 2018, no construction activity is permitted for Car Shed., where as MMRC  is stating that they have all the permission for the construction, hence they will continue with construction. I am keeping my fingers crossed in this matter, as tunneling work in the city is going in full swing and it might happen,  we will have everything else ready  and will wait for car shed, to start the Metro operations.
2. The second is infra project known as Goregaon Mulund Link road. The total length of the road is approx 14 Km , and out of which about 5 km of road is passing through the area of National Park, which is a designated forest land. The two ends of roads ie Goregaon end and Mulund end are ready for decades, but the middle part which is passing through National Park is stuck up, for want of permission from NGT & MOEF. Now  BMC ( BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation) has decided that the middle portion of the road will be made as under ground tunnel. BMC says that for doing this they will not need any MOEF clearance. When asked why permission is not required, the BMC representative replied that, first thing we will not be destroying the ecology of national Park, secondly this road is neither a national or state highway in need of expansion. Also it does not connect the Eastern and Western Highway  directly. The BMC has written Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), seeking permission for withdrawing its request for clearance. The BMC has also asked EAC to exempt this project from public consultations as the portion of the project affected area that will require the removal of hutments etc is outside the boundry  of national Park. The two tunnels at the national Park will be through a hill, similar to tunnels on Mumbai Pune Expressway and will not affect flora and fauna of National Park. Let us wait and watch, what will happen next. The cost of the project now will go up considerably because of tunneling work.

Mumbai city has suffered quite long for some infra projects on this link between Eastern and Western Corridors of suburbs. There are now three Eastern and Western  Corridors connecting Roads, first one is original link via Bandra- Sion, Second one started in early 90s ie Jogeshwari  Vikhroli Link Road, 3rd one started few years back is Santacruz Chembur Linkway, which was stuck for almost 2 decades because of road had to cross over the Railway lines  via fly over and there was issues which Railways and BMC could not resolve for such a long time. My only concern is that the Ministries should look the matter carefully and not just going by the book reject some project, this tunneling idea should have been suggested by MOEF in first instance, rather than to wait for 2 decades to find a solution for major and important infra work , which is required for city like Mumbai, the Commercial capital of the country.

So what you say my friends.

Awaiting your feed backs/comments/views.