Kolkata: The state on Monday assured the Calcutta High Court that no construction would start on the flyover from EM Bypass to New Town main arterial road till the central government gave its nod.
The issue came up during the hearing of a PIL that environmental action group People United for Better Living in Calcutta (PUBLIC) had filed against the proposed flyover through the wetlands. Though the alignment of the flyover was thereafter changed, PUBLIC senior counsel Siddharth Mitra pointed out that the state’s representation that the project had been granted approval by the central government was not accurate, since a realigned route and an environmental impact assessment had been sought by a team that had visited the site in 2019. “These conditions had yet to be met, so there was no question of approval having been granted,” Mitra argued.
State government’s senior counsel Amitesh Banerjee agreed and reiterated that the state stood by its earlier assurance that no construction would start until the central government approval had been obtained.
On the World Environment Day on June 5, the state had unveiled a plan to “save the wetlands”. The plan, according to additional chief secretary environment, Vivek Kumar, envisaged an expenditure of Rs 120 crore over the next five years on restoring and improving the environmental services provided by the “lungs and kidneys” of Kolkata.
PUBLIC’s Bonani Kakkar said that formulating a management plan for the East Kolkata Wetlands is an encouraging step, butit did not make sense to build a flyover to reduce driving time to the airport by 10 minutes at a huge environmental and financial cost.
Amit Roy, management consultant on development projects in India and internationally, said the experience worldwide has been that building more flyovers does not solve traffic problems; at best it transfers or postpones the problem.
The issue came up during the hearing of a PIL that environmental action group People United for Better Living in Calcutta (PUBLIC) had filed against the proposed flyover through the wetlands. Though the alignment of the flyover was thereafter changed, PUBLIC senior counsel Siddharth Mitra pointed out that the state’s representation that the project had been granted approval by the central government was not accurate, since a realigned route and an environmental impact assessment had been sought by a team that had visited the site in 2019. “These conditions had yet to be met, so there was no question of approval having been granted,” Mitra argued.
State government’s senior counsel Amitesh Banerjee agreed and reiterated that the state stood by its earlier assurance that no construction would start until the central government approval had been obtained.
On the World Environment Day on June 5, the state had unveiled a plan to “save the wetlands”. The plan, according to additional chief secretary environment, Vivek Kumar, envisaged an expenditure of Rs 120 crore over the next five years on restoring and improving the environmental services provided by the “lungs and kidneys” of Kolkata.
PUBLIC’s Bonani Kakkar said that formulating a management plan for the East Kolkata Wetlands is an encouraging step, butit did not make sense to build a flyover to reduce driving time to the airport by 10 minutes at a huge environmental and financial cost.
Amit Roy, management consultant on development projects in India and internationally, said the experience worldwide has been that building more flyovers does not solve traffic problems; at best it transfers or postpones the problem.
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