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Senior Advocate C U Singh, who appeared for the project promoters, said it had urged the court to clarify which alignment it should follow and that it was willing to adopt whichever is the “environmentally benign” alignment. The Supreme Court on Thursday accepted the recommendation of the Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by it to utilise the existing 220 KV powerline alignment in Goa, instead of cutting down fresh forest cover, to lay a new 400 KV line as part of the ambitious Goa-Tamnar Transmission Project.
Hearing a plea by NGO Goa Foundation, a three-judge bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, B R Gavai and Aniruddha Bose accepted the proposal made by the CEC in its April 23, 2021 report. The Committee had said that the move will “help in saving the previous forest cover and wildlife in the ecologically fragile and biodiversity rich Western Ghats”.
Advocate A D N Rao, who assisted the court as Amicus Curiae in the matter, told The Indian Express that the project promoters had also agreed to accept the alignment proposed by the CEC and consequently, the alternate alignment cleared by the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife in April 2020 has been set aside.
Senior Advocate C U Singh, who appeared for the project promoters, said it had in its application urged the court to clarify which alignment it should follow and that it was willing to adopt whichever is the “environmentally benign” alignment.
The court has now clarified that it will be the one proposed by the CEC, he told The Indian Express.
The power transmission project envisaged laying a 400 KV transmission line from Sangod in Goa to the Karnataka border to help meet Goa’s peak electricity demand of 1192 MW by 2022.
In its report of April last year, the CEC had said about the power project, “…CEC is of the considered view that instead of clearing canopy of virgin forest cover along 10.50 km long corridor with 46m ROW in Goa State, the proposed 400 KV line should be drawn along the existing 220 KV corridor line in Goa State after establishing 400 KV corridor connectivity between Mapusa and Sangod and 220 KV line between Sangod and Xeldem (in South Goa).”
The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife had cleared two more projects — the doubling of the railway track from Castle Rock in Karnataka to Kulem in Goa and the four-laning of NH 4A from Anmod near the Goa-Karnataka border to Mollem.
The three projects were met with strong opposition from environmentalists and locals that, in 2020, gave shape to the ‘Save Mollem’ campaign – against the felling of trees in Mollem National Park and Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary in South Goa. Activists had raised the alarm against the three projects, saying it will destroy protected forest land.
The CEC had recommended revoking permission for the railway expansion project, saying it “will only be marginally enhancing the capacity of the most inefficient section of the railway network passing through ecologically sensitive and biodiversity rich Tiger Reserve, two Wildlife Sanctuaries and a National Park”.
The Committee, however, allowed the highway expansion, subject to modifications like expansion of animal corridors and elevated highways in places where animal crossings are frequent.
“Considering the future increase in traffic, something unavoidable, and keeping in view the interest of the Wildlife Sanctuary and the National Park it is imperative to ensure improvement of the existing road by shifting it to an elevated structure at strategic locations leaving the surface terrain free for movement of all types of wildlife,” its report said, adding that the width of the span of the under passes / over passes provided for the movement of animals by Goa PWD are inadequate for free movement of wild animals. It recommended increasing the length of the span of the proposed four-lane elevated road from 12 metre to up to 100 metre.
The objections to the railway track and highway expansion are before the court as well and are awaiting a final decision.
Reacting to Thursday’s development, Amche Mollem Citizens group said in a statement that the fight for Goa’s largest protected area was taken on by citizens from all walks of life as acknowledged by the CEC. “This needs to keep going, while we follow the admission of the Mollem case to the Supreme Court and that the Tamnar line needs to be re-aligned. All citizens must continue using their voices and participation to protect Mollem and fight for a future full of forests, as there are two more detrimental projects,” it said.
Evanthika Pereira of Mollem Memory Project said, “We were eagerly waiting for SC’s response. We are nothing but happy that our voices have finally been heard and understood. This definitely paves way for a better future for all the youth. Now we have full faith the other two projects will meet the same fate.”
“The Amche Mollem campaign has proven yet again that people’s power prevails over any other force. We have unitedly stood up for our dearest forest and the shared fragile ecosystem. Let’s continue to focus towards an Eco-centric approach of development, and embrace our Green Heritage to the fullest…,” the Chicalim Youth Farmers Club said in a statement.
The Goa-Tamnar Transmission Project is part of National Grid Development and was proposed to be implemented through the Special Purpose Vehicle Goa-Tamnar Transmission Project Private Limited, New Delhi. The project involved the laying of additional 400 KV feed to Goa.
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