No green nod yet to Lavasa's hill project

Environment clearance has not been issued as on date to the first phase of Lavasa Corporation Limited's hill city project located near Pune, the government today informed the Rajya Sabha.

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said Lavasa Corporation Limited submitted a proposal seeking environmental clearance on February 2, this year for 2000 hectares of land for phase-1 of the hill city project.

The proposal was appraised by the Expert Appraisal Committee at its various meetings and the Committee recommended the proposal with certain conditions, she said.

"The Ministry (MoEF) has informed M/s Lavasa Corporation Limited regarding the requirement of the five pre-conditions before issuing the Environmental clearance. Environmental celarance is not issued as on date," the Minister said in reply to a written query.

Natarajan said the Ministry had earlier issued a show cause notice under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to Lavasa on November 25, 2010 and issued final directions on January 17, this year.

"M/s Lavasa Corporation Limited has filed writ petitions in the Hon'ble High Court of Bombay challenging the show cause notice and final directions," she said.

The Minister said the MoEF on June 10 this year asked the state government to take action against Lavasa under the provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 "because certain violations have been noticed during the site visit by the Committee headed by Naresh Dayal and also during the appraisal by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) constituted under Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006".