Lavasa: Expert appraisal committee okays partial clearance

In good news for Lavasa Corporation, which is promoting the controversial hill station project in Pune, the expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the Union environment ministry has cleared construction and development activities that have already taken place on 700 hectares out of the total project area of 5,000 hectares.

While the environment ministry is likely to accept the EAC’s recommendation, the final call rests with the Bombay high court, which will hear the matter at the end of this month.

At its meeting last week, the EAC observed that since substantial development had already taken place in about 700 hectares, it is left with no other alternative but to appraise the project ex-post-facto.   

It took into consideration the investments made by third parties, infrastructure already created and the hardship faced by workers while allowing construction work of 257 buildings, which have been constructed up to the plinth level.

However, the committee made it clear that for the remaining area where construction is yet to take place, the entire model of development must be examined and corrected. Imposing stiff conditions, it said there would be no hill cutting, digging, excavation, or any other activity involving generation of soil, its use or its transportation.

It could mean permitting only limited low-intensity environment-friendly development to ensure that all issues are appropriately addressed. The EAC also recommended a well-structured environment monitoring mechanism at the project site.

Deliberating upon the submissions made by the Lavasa Corporation, the committee made some harsh observations. The site was selected without examining the environmental issues — slope analysis, soil investigation etc; non-examination of cumulative environmental impacts likely to be caused due to development of the hill station township in the environmentally fragile Western Ghats.

The EAC also pointed out that the approval of the Maharashtra government to the proposed development control regulations for Lavasa was not made available to it.