Karnataka   

Impact of corridor project likely to be reviewed afresh

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, AUG. 13. Regardless of how the present controversy over the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) turns out, the project may have to go through a comprehensive and fresh review of its environmental and social impacts, following a recent amendment to the Environment Impact Assessment notification of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

According to the Environment Support Group, a Bangalore-based non-government organisation, the Union Ministry has written to the promoters of the project staying that the component of five townships along the corridor required fresh approval.

Amendment

The amendment to the official notification is available online on www.envfor.nic.in/legis/eia/so801(e).doc. Any construction for 1,000 or more persons or discharging sewage of 50,000 litres a day or more, with investment of Rs. 50 crores or more, now has to obtain environmental clearance from the Union Ministry, the amendment says.

Project

The project involves the construction of an expressway and five major townships, including real estate, hospitality, health and industrial, which together or independently come under the notification, the Support Group says. The promoters now have to submit a comprehensive environmental and social impact assessment, make it public and based on which the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has to conduct a public hearing.

This procedure will normally take at least two years and the promoters will have to seek fresh clearances under the Water and Air Acts from the Pollution Control Board and Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Support Group says.

The promoters had only received conditional clearance for the expressway component of the project last year.

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