The jetty being built by the Military Engineering Services of the army to augment the water supply of Fort William. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Want to “encroach” on the Hooghly? Don’t bother about the environment cost, just pay Rs 1.20 per square feet to Calcutta Port Trust.

The port trust authorities have charged an army unit an “encroachment fee” at that rate for consent to build a three-storeyed concrete “water inlet” jetty on the river bed.

Green activists and river experts are up in arms over the permission, calling it illegal and comparing it to a “licence to kill the river by increasing the sedimentation”.

A.K. Mukhopadhyay, the officer on special duty in the port trust, admitted that the structure would be harmful for the Hooghly but cited “public benefit” in a attempt to justify the nod.

The Military Engineering Services has been erecting the water inlet jetty across 150sq ft between Sea Explorer’s Institute and Outram Ghat to draw 2 million gallons of water daily for augmenting the water supply at Fort William.

“MES (Military Engineering Services) shall pay encroachment fee @ Rs 120 per 100sq ft per annum… in connection with the construction,” reads the port trust permission letter (Admin/6454/IV, dated February 1, 2007), a copy of which is with Metro.

River experts fear the jetty would accelerate the already high sedimentation rate of the river. “Sedimentation has been a major problem of the Hooghly. Allowing such encroachments within the tidal region will further aggravate the problem and ultimately kill the river,” said river expert Kalyan Rudra, also a member of the high court-appointed Ganga Monitoring Committee.

Rudra alleged that the port trust, by allowing the army unit to raise the structure, had violated “in principle” a gazette notification issued by the Centre on February 20. The notification outlined certain steps to minimise the pollution of the Hooghly and ensure “minimum ecological water flow” of the river.

Experts point out that water jetties are seldom operated from permanent structures. “To minimise the impact on the river, it’s the norm to construct floating jetties for such operations,” said an expert.

Biswajit Mukherjee, the chief law officer of the environment department and head of the court-appointed panel, was categorical that any encroachment on the river was illegal.

“Following a court directive sometime back, we demolished one such encroachment by Bhadreshwar municipality,” said Mukherjee. Agreed environment activist Subhash Dutta, also a member of the Ganga Monitoring Committee.

“How can an encroachment on a river be legalised by charging money? The port trust is the custodian of the Hooghly and is supposed to keep the river free of encroachments. But it’s doing the opposite for the sake of revenue, which is illegal,” Dutta said.

Mukhopadhyay, of the port trust, said various municipalities and several government agencies have also been allowed to encroach on the river for “public good”. “Recently, Hidco and CMWSA were granted similar permissions. All are charged at the same rate (of Rs 1.20 per square feet),” said Mukhopadhyay.

Dutta countered Mukhopadhyay’s claim that encroachments were allowed only for public benefit. “How could the port trust then allow a private hotel to come on the river bed beside Strand Road?” he asked.

Mukhopadhyay also sought to defend the army project by saying that the jetty was coming up in the foreshore region (from where water recedes during low tide) and not on the river proper.

But Rudra alleged that the jetty was well within the low tide flow of the river.

An army spokesman said observations by any environment committee would be taken into account and all “necessary actions would be taken to conserve the riverine ecosystem”.