Hyderabad, August 03: All construction projects must have rigorous environmental impact assessments according to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. However, in a controversial move, Mass Rapid Transit System projects, which include the numerous Metro projects coming up in different Indian cities, were exempted from the list of projects needing environmental clearance.
The Notification was issued in 2006 and since then activists and civil society groups all over the country, including in Hyderabad, have been trying to get Metro projects included in the list of projects that need prior environmental clearance.
These groups are exerting pressure on the Union government demanding that MRTS projects too need prior environmental clearance.
The Citizens for Better Public Transport in Hyderabad (CBPTH), a coalition of groups in Andhra Pradesh that has been spearheading the agitation against the Hyderabad Metro project and demanding more public debate on its pros and cons, has affixed its signature to the letter to be submitted to the Minister.
C Ramachandraiah, convener of CBPTH said, “It is ridiculous to exclude Metro projects when airports and other construction projects need prior environmental clearance”.
Projects that are listed as needing environmental clearance by the EIA Notification need to go through certain procedures including screening, public consultation and appraisals. “Since metro projects have been removed from the purview of the EIA Notification they do not even need public consultations, which is mandatory for other construction projects,” says K S Murthy, an advocate who specialises in environmental litigation.
Public consultations refers to the process by which the concerns of local affected persons are ascertained.
The CBPTH says that since public consultations are not happening, the Metro officials have no incentive to place any records or documents pertaining to the project in the public domain. “They have refused to divulge any information about the project,” said Ramachandraiah. “We are not against the Metro per se, if the project is good then people will support it, all we are asking for is more transparency,” he added.
The surprising thing is that MRTS projects were included in the list of projects that needed clearance in the draft EIA Notification issued in 2005. In a letter dated September 15, 2005, a copy of which is with Expresso, none other than Delhi Metro Managing Director, E Sreedharan, who was a consultant to the Hyderabad Metro, urged the Environment and Forests Ministry to exempt MRTS projects from environmental clearance.
The letter reads ‘MRTS projects are environment friendly, they reduce air and noise pollution, bring down the number of accidents and help in the overall preservation and enhancement of city environment.
Requirement of obtaining environmental clearance for MRTS projects will be a retrograde step and would cause a delay in their implementation. I would request the MOEF to consider excluding MRTS projects like the Railway projects from the requirement of prior environmental clearance before their implementation’.
Subsequently, the 2006 EIA Notification dropped MRTS projects from requiring prior environmental clearance.
–Agencies-