Times of India | 2 days ago | 28-01-2023 | 07:02 am
PANAJI: The Union environment ministry’s regional empowered committee (REC), based on the Goa government’s request, has decided to recommend revocation of abeyance for part of the stretch for railway line double-tracking on the Kalem-Sanvordem route.However, the REC has said that the user agency has to fully comply with Supreme Court directives for the other stretches on the route as they fall within an eco-sensitive zone.The Supreme Court, in its order dated May 9, 2022, had revoked the approvals granted by the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife for rail doubling between Castlerock and Kulem. This was brought to the notice of the Union environment ministry, which accordingly had kept in abeyance the stage-II approvals accorded for diversion of forest land for the Hospet-Tinaighat-Vasco rail-doubling project. However, recently, the Union railways ministry’s Rail Vikas Nigam made a request to the REC to permit it to go ahead with the doubling work that falls outside the protected areas, and to revoke the abeyance order of stage-II approval on the stretches of the Kulem-Kalem section (covering 15.6ha) and the Kalem-Sanvordem section (covering 1.9ha). A meeting was then held with railway officials last year, and they were advised by the REC to submit the request through the state government with ‘proper justification’. The Goa government, therefore, on January 3, 2023, forwarded the same request to the REC.Deliberating on the proposal, the REC said that the Kulem-Kalem section falls in Bhagwan Mahaveer wildlife sanctuary and its eco-sensitive zone. The committee noted though that in the Kalem-Sanvordem section, an area of 1.9ha with private forest can be recommended to the Union environment ministry for permission to revoke the abeyance order, as this area falls outside any protected area or ecologically-sensitive zone. The REC has now decided to recommend to the Union ministry to revoke the abeyance order for this stretch.However, the committee said that part of the Kalem-Sanvordem section beyond the said private forest area falls in the ecologically-sensitive zone of the Bhagwan Mahaveer wildlife sanctuary, and has asked the user agency to ‘ensure full compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court/other courts before undertaking any activity beyond the stretch under consideration in the remaining parts of the Kalem-Sanvordem section’.The SC had kept the stage-II clearances in abeyance based on the report of the central empowered committee. The CEC had submitted its report before the Supreme Court on April 23, 2021, recommending revocation of permissions granted by the standing committee of the National Board of Wildlife for doubling of the railway track passing through Bhagwan Mahaveer wildlife sanctuary in Goa and Dandeli wildlife sanctuary in Karnataka.
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