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Flamingos hit Rs 11,000-crore Trans Harbour Link; centre holds clearance

The FAC has directed the Maharashtra government to submit a study report detailing the project's impact on them. It also advised the state to rope in either the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) or the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, for the report.

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The country's longest proposed sea link – the 22-km-long Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) – has been hit by migratory birds.

The forest advisory committee (FAC) of the environment ministry has withheld the clearance for MTHL as it affects "existing mangroves as well as the flamingo population".

The FAC has directed the Maharashtra government to submit a study report detailing the project's impact on them. It also advised the state to rope in either the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) or the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, for the report.

The cost of the report is to be borne by the project proponent Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA). The MTHL requires the environment ministry's clearance as it will affect 38 hectares of protected mangrove forests and 8.8 hectares of forest land on the Navi Mumbai end.

MMRDA has also been asked to submit a plan, detailing the safeguards it will follow to cause the least disturbance to the flamingo congregation at Sewri.

The sea link between Sewri and Chirle in Navi Mumbai has been proposed to cut travel time between south Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. It will also facilitate commercial vehicular traffic, directly connecting Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, and is estimated to cost Rs 11,000 crore.

The sea link's starting point poses a threat to around 20,000-30,000 lesser and greater flamingos and the critical mangrove habitat.

The Sewri mudflats are already heavily polluted, thanks to the coal storage depots, shipyards and domestic sewage nearby. The mudflats have been enlisted as an 'Important Bird Area', as it is home to 150 bird species.

For several years, the project's current alignment has been opposed by environmental groups and BNHS had even proposed an alternative alignment 500-700 metres southwards to mitigate MTHL's ecological threat. But it was shot down by MMRDA owing to cost overruns and the existence of sub-sea pipelines and cables.

The FAC, while considering the project earlier, had noted that neither the state's chief wildlife warden nor the MMRDA had made any mention of the alternative alignment. In fact, in lieu of the project's potential impact on flamingos, the state government had planned to notify the sea link's north end as a flamingo sanctuary.

The FAC has now asked the state government to apprise them on the declaration of the proposed 'flamingo sanctuary'.

The FAC decision deals a big blow to the project that is already saddled by multiple delays. In the last decade, it has faced three failed tendering processes for public-private partnerships. MMRDA came on board later and took it up on a cash-contract basis.

Currently, the state government has acquired 20% central funding and is yet to decide whether to self-fund the rest or seek a loan from Japan International Co-operation Agency.

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