The Western Zonal Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set aside the environmental clearance (EC) granted for the expansion of a residential and commercial project in Viman Nagar, citing deficiencies in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report. The tribunal said the report failed to provide point-wise responses to the Terms of Reference (ToR) prescribed for the project and was therefore erroneous.
However, while examining the appeal, the NGT found deficiencies in the EIA report. A bench comprising Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh, Judicial Member, and Sujit Kumar Bajpayee, Expert Member, passed the order on Thursday while allowing an appeal challenging the EC granted by the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), Maharashtra, on February 9, 2024. It said an EIA study must address each condition prescribed under the ToR so that compliance can be assessed point by point.
The State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) subsequently categorised the proposal as a violation case and recommended preparation of an EIA study and Environment Management Plan (EMP). The project had initially received environmental clearance in March 2019 for a total built-up area of 45,141.56 square metres. The authority treated the construction as a violation of the earlier EC and the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006. SEIAA subsequently directed the project proponent to apply under the standard operating procedure issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in July 2021 for projects involving violations. The project proponent applied for Terms of Reference under the violation category in January 2023.
However, when an application was subsequently made for expansion, SEIAA found that construction had been carried out with a different profile from the one approved under the earlier clearance.
