Mumbai:
Ajit Gulabchand, the chairman of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) wants the Prime Minister to intervene after the environment ministry (MoEF) on Friday denied clearance to the first phase of Rs 3,000 crore Lavasa hill city project near Pune.
The HCC which is developing Lavasa in February had applied for a fresh environment clearance of phase-I spread over 2,000 hectares in village Mulshi near Pune.
The MoEF says the company failed to meet the preconditions set for clearing the project. "As the precondition on the credible action on violation of environment impact assessment (EIA), 2006 has not been complied with, the ministry is unable to issue the environment clearance to the first phase of the hill city project of Lavasa," the ministry said in its order.
"This is a completely discriminatory act. These pre-conditions have never been laid down before," Mr Gulabchand said in response to the order.
Calling the denial of permission "absurd", Mr Gulabchand appealed to Dr Manmohan Singh to come and see the work that had been done at Lavasa. Claiming that his Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) was losing Rs 2 crore each day, Mr Gulabchand said, "We appeal to the MoEF to give us environmental clearance immediately. We started building the city at the instance of the state government."
The Environment Ministry (MoEF) has set five preconditions for granting its green nod. These include- adherence to state norms for all construction; floor-space- index (FSI) calculation according to prescribed norms; five per cent of the total funds that Lavasa spends on construction to go towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities; and that Lavasa contribute towards a special 'environment fund'.
(with IANS inputs)