ARAI denies violation of green norms

Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) today denied any possibility of environment violation norms while setting up the laboratories under the NATRiP project, an initiative of Government of India’s ‘Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016’.

According to some media reports, ARAI is violating environmental norms while setting up laboratories and it is going to harm the hill area in Pune. Also, a city based organisation is running a signature campaign against this set up.

It says that due to this expansion plan of ARAI, the whole Vetal Hill (at which ARAI is situated) area will now have concrete buildings and will lose its green cover.

ARAI also fears that objections raised to this project may cause delay and increase in the cost. Further, this might result in Maharashtra losing this prestigious project to some other state and shall also create a lot of logistical problem for all the automotive companies located in the vicinity of Pune.

Commenting on this, Shrikant Marathe, director, ARAI said, " Some media reports published in the past few weeks about the utilisation of ARAI land for its proposed expansion are misleading society at large and are creating a wrong impression in the minds of citizens of Pune. This is primarily happening because of lack of awareness about the facts."

He added, "The land requirement for this development has been approved by Ministry of Environment and Forest after an on-site assessment by Chairman of Forest Advisory Committee constituted by the Supreme Court. Prior to approval it had gone through various stages of scrutiny by concerned Government Departments. It is very important to note that only another 3.5 acres shall be utilised for this purpose and the total non-green area after taking both existing and proposed development into account will be less than 5% of the total land. So it is wrong to perceive / interpret that the major portion / the complete area of Vetal Hill shall be utilised for this proposed development."

Under the proposed expansion plan, ARAI would be setting up advanced laboratories complimentary to existing facilities to develop less polluting Euro V and Euro VI technologies, i.e. greener and safer vehicles. These facilities are required to be essentially used along with the already operational facilities of ARAI. In short it is a logical extension, considering future needs of automobile sector.

According to ARAI, Government of India’s ‘Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016’ is having a vision to increase auto sector’s contribution to GDP up to 10 per cent and creation of over 25 million jobs. Department of Heavy Industry - Government of India has already sanctioned Rs 250 crore for this ultramodern research and development project, which will be non-manufacturing, zero discharge facility. The further delay may increase the cost of this project, said ARAI.

Out of 260 acres of land allotted, ARAI has surrendered 125 acres of land to Forest Department and also paid Rs 11.5 crore to the government for green belt development on this land. Over the years, ARAI has taken tremendous efforts to develop greenery on the entire hill top.