Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project: The Bombay High Court has directed the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL), which is carrying out the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, to undertake compensatory plantation of 1.10 lakh mangrove saplings in the city and neighbouring districts of Palghar and Thane.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Abhay Ahuja had on December 9 allowed the NHSRCL to cut mangroves for the project. The detailed order was made available on Monday. “In our view, considering the advantages set out above (by NHSRCL), the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project is in public interest and necessary for public good and a project of bonafide public utility,” the court said.
The bench further said that if the petitioner is put to terms by way of an undertaking for compulsory afforestation and an undertaking to comply with the conditions of the clearances already granted as well as to be granted that should adequately meet the requirements of “sustainable development”. The court then asked the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authorities (MCZMA) and other concerned authorities to permit the NHSRCL to execute the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project, including in the area falling in the mangrove area and in the buffer zone “in the view of the public importance of the project”.
“A responsible officer of the petitioner files an undertaking before this court, within a period of 10 days of the uploading of this order, binding the petitioner (a) that the petitioner will undertake compensatory plantation of 1,10,000 mangrove saplings, (b) shall strictly comply with the conditions as imposed in the permissions/clearances granted by the various authorities,” the court said.
As per a 2018 order of the high court, there exists a 'total freeze' on the destruction of mangroves across the state and permission has to be sought from the high court each time an authority wishes to fell mangroves for any public project. As per the said order, a 50 m buffer zone must be created around the area that hosts the mangroves and no construction activity or dumping of debris can be permitted within this buffer zone.
In its petition filed in 2020, the NHSRCL had assured the court that it would plant five times the total mangrove trees that were earlier proposed to be felled and the number would not be reduced for the same. The plea was opposed by Bombay Environmental Action Group, an NGO, on the ground that no study was undertaken about the survival rate of saplings to be planted as a compensatory measure and the Environmental Impact Assessment report for felling trees has not been provided.
The NHSRCL had denied the objections raised by the NGO and claimed that it had availed required approvals for the felling of trees for the project of public importance and would compensate for the loss occurring due to the same by planting of saplings as directed. The 508-km high speed rail corridor between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is expected to cut travel time from six-and-a-half hours to two-and-a-half hours. The bullet train project received a major push after the Eknath Shinde-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in June this year. The dispensation has given all approvals for this project, the foundation of which was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2017.
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