Six hydro projects on Alaknanda and Bhagirath river basins in Uttarakhand may be allowed to go ahead with construction work if the Supreme Court accepts the Centre’s stand that the projects have the necessary environmental clearances, except for wildlife clearances which are yet to be accorded.
The six projects are THDC’s 08 MW Jhelum Tamak, NTPC’s 171 MW Lata Tapovan, Super Hydro’s Khironi Ganga and Bhyundar Ganga, NHPC’s 195 MW Kotibhel-IA, and GMR’s 300 MW Alaknanda Badrinath.
The apex court had imposed a blanket stay on construction of 24 hydro projects, including these six, after a natural disaster hit the state in June 2012. It had also directed the MoEF and the state government not to grant further environmental or forest clearance until further orders.
The MoEF told the court that a four-member panel set up by it to examine deficiencies has submitted that environmental clearances, consents to establish and approvals for diversion of forest land have been accorded by the designated authorities at the Centre and the Uttarakhand government in accordance with prescribed rules and regulations prevalent at the time of filing of applications for approval by project proponents.
“The committee has observed that whatever was mandated in the procedural and substantive requirement of the law for environmental clearance, forest clearance and consent to establish, these projects have not been found deficient in such respects except for wildlife clearances which have not been accorded so far,” the ministry said in its fresh affidavit
The affidavit comes in the wake of the apex court in December asking Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to clarify the Centre’s stand on allowing a cluster of six hydro projects, which claim to have all environmental clearances, to go ahead with construction work.
A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had asked the AG to to assist in deciding the future of hydroelectricity projects in the state and inform about the collective impact of these six projects on the environment.
