Cement Energy and Environment

By its looks, the place could be mistaken for Portofino, a fishing village-cum-resort in Italy-multi-coloured buildings crowd a waterfront and cafes flank a cobbled promenade. But the under-construction town is just an hour's drive from Pune in Maharashtra and is independent India's first hill city-Lavasa. Planned on the principles of new urbanism where shops, homes, workplace and recreational facilities are within walking distance of each other, Lavasa is touted as a place that would offer quality life to its projected 300,000 residents and attract tourists. What the postcard images of the hill city hide is that its promoters, Lavasa Corporation Limited, bent rules, overlooked regulations and ignored environmental statutes while building it. This has jeopardised the ecology of the Sahyadri hills where Lavasa is located. The resultant landslides could pose a risk for Lavasa, too. by Kumar sambhav Shrivastava and Amab Pratim Dutta Somatane • Propose~ Pune. _...__ Exit . InternatiOnal Airport H1nJewad1 Ministry softens stand Construction work at Lavasa was on full swing till November 25 last year when the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) intervened and issued a stop-work order and notice to Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL), mostly owned by construction major Hindustan Construction Company. Reason: the company had failed to obtain environmental clearance from the Union ministry. It had proceeded on the basis of a clearance from Maharashtra's environment department. In March first week, the ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for new infrastructure projects and Coastal Regulation Zone said that planning and development of the whole project should be reworked and its environmental impact assessed afresh. At the same time the ministry also recommended permiSSIOn be given to complete the semi– finished buildings being built as villas and apartments. It clarified that structures that did not reach plinth level, should not be allowed. The move to regularise illegal constructions is at variance with the ministry's findings over the past four months. An expert committee constituted by the ministry on the directions of the high court at Mumbai, comprising Central and state EAC members and MOEF officials, had visited the project site in January. The committee's report, dated January 13, confirms the violations of environmental laws, including haphazard cutting of hills. The ministry had stopped work and constituted the commi~ee in response to the public interest petition moved by the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), formed by activists and NGOs, in the high court of Mumbai. Lavasa challenged the ministry's order in the high court, saying it had taken the requisite clearances from the state and the ministry had no jurisdiction over the project. The petition named environment minister Jairam Ramesh and two ministry officials in person. LCL later applied for post facto clearance from MoEF for the first phase of the project, on February 1; Lavasa is being developed in two phases of 2,000 ha and 3,000 ha. While seeking clearance from the ministry, the company argued it 39