the goan I network
PANAJI
Director of Civil Aviation Suresh Shanbhogue told Chief Minister Pramod Sawant that the Supreme Court’s order suspending the Environmental Clearance for the Mopa Airport will lead to a delay in the airport project timelines.
The airport, the first phase of which was scheduled to be completed by mid 2020 is now expected to face an indefinite delay while the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change revisits its decision to grant an environmental clearance to the proposal.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who held a meeting with several connected officials in wake of the Supreme Court’s order, has assured he will personally review the progress of the process to reissue an environmental clearance to the airport.
In a statement to the media, the Government said that Sawant had a detailed discussion regarding the judgment of the Supreme Court and its impact.
“The Chief Minister has directed that he will personally review the progress in the matter on regular basis, so that all necessary steps are taken as per the directions of the Supreme Court to enable to restart the project work at Mopa,” the statement reads.
The Director of Civil Aviation Dr Suresh Shanbhogue who was present for the meeting told the Chief Minister that the Supreme Court’s order could “delay the project timeline” especially now since work will resume only once the Environmental Clearance is granted once again and that could well be after the monsoon season.
The review meeting was attended by Govind Jaiswal, IAS, Secretary-Environment, Dr. Suresh Shanbhogue, Director Civil Aviation, RV Sheshan, CEO, GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL) and other senior officers of GGIAL.
The Supreme Court suspended the Environmental Clearance granted to the Mopa airport and asked the Expert Appraisal Committee of the MoEF&CC to this time analyse the project taking its role as an expert committee seriously.
The Supreme Court found flaws with the manner in which the MoEF&CC’s Expert Appraisal Committee analysed the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Report saying that the EAC “has failed to answer to the call to its expertise.”
The Court primarily found flaw with the claim in the Environmental Impact Assessment report which noted that “the area acquired for proposed airport has only few trees, mainly bushes.”
In reality, the petitioners pointed out, that when applying for permissions to fell the trees before the forest authorities, the project proponents sought permission to cut 54,676 trees.
“To realise later that the project involved the felling of 54,676 trees is indicative of the cavalier approach to the issue and a process of fact finding which is parsimonious with the truth,” the Supreme Court noted.
“There can be no gambles with the environment: a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ approach is simply unacceptable; unacceptable if we are to preserve environmental governance under the rule of law,” the Supreme Court also said.
