The Lavasa township

Mumbai, Dec. 22: Bombay High Court today declined to interfere with an environment ministry directive asking Lavasa Corporation to stop construction of its multi-crore township in Pune pending hearing of a showcause notice.

The ministry had served notice to Lavasa on November 25 asking why it did not obtain environmental clearances, under the Environment Protection Act, before the hill city project started in 2004.

The court asked the ministry to take by January 10 the final decision on the showcause notice. It said a state/Centre-level environment impact assessment committee must visit the site “at least for three days” for inspection before any decision is taken.

“Don’t pay a casual, aerial visit. Spend time, survey the entire project and resolve the matter once and for all,” a bench of Justices B.H. Marlapalle and U.D. Salvi said.

The court suggested that an official each from the irrigation and forest departments join the committee to assess the impact on land, water supply and irrigation to Pune city and other issues like displacement and rehabilitation of affected people.

Lavasa’s lawyers contended project did not require environment ministry clearance. They said the show-cause notice did not reveal what damage had been caused to the environment.

But the court held that prima facie there was no breach of the “principles of natural justice” by the environment ministry, so its order to Lavasa to maintain status quo need not be interfered with.

However, if Lavasa was still aggrieved after the environment ministry’s final order on January 10, it may challenge it afresh, the court said.

In an earlier order, the court had suggested to the ministry that Lavasa be allowed to continue construction that may not cause irreversible damage to the environment.

But the ministry today said that construction activity for which Lavasa was seeking permission was spread across 2,000 hectares and monitoring it may not be possible.

Shekhar Naphade, the counsel for Lavasa, argued that the project had “76 permissions” from state authorities and the show-cause notice was a “drastic order”.

He said the township project had brought development to the area in terms of basic infrastructure, schools, employment and health and would be the alternate hill station the state was looking for.

“There seems to be a tussle between state planning authorities and the environment ministry,” Naphade said.

The court admitted three PILs filed earlier on alleged illegalities in the project. The PILs, as well as Lavasa’s present petition, will be heard on January 27.

The issues raised include the alleged illegalities in transfer of land to Lavasa by Krishna Valley Development Corporation, displacement of people and the apprehension that the project may affect irrigation and water supply to Pune city and surrounding areas.