Click to play videoMumbai: Lavasa, India's first planned hill city, being built in Maharshtra's Pune district, is now one step closer to reality. The Union Environment Ministry on Wednesday gave conditional clearance to the project.
The Lavasa township got the clearance to the Environment Ministry, subject to additional conditions, after several months of being mired in controversy. It's a project that has seen many legal twists and turns in the last two years.
In 2009, the ministry suspended work citing environment violations by Lavasa. A year later, the ministry agreed to give clearance if it fulfilled five pre-conditions that included credible action by the Maharashtra government against Lavasa.
However, in 2011, the ministry refused to give clearance to the first phase of the project as the main condition was not fulfilled on credible action by Maharashtra government against Lavasa.
Later, on November 3, 2011, the Maharashtra government took action by filing a criminal case against Lavasa.
And with the condition being fulfilled, the Environment Ministry lived up to its end of the bargain. It gave the go ahead subject to various conditions like preparation of an environment restoration plan and regular monitoring of the project by ministry officials.
It seems the lobbying by the chairman of the project, Ajit Gulabchand, with several influential people from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan seems to have paid off finally.
“We are glad for all the stakeholders of Lavasa. I am particularly happy for all the villagers and construction workers who had lost their jobs and their little businesses. They will now restart with the start of the construction work,” said Gulabchand.
This is a project which does not have just green concerns. It has huge political ramifications, since NCP chief Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule have come out openly in support of the project. With all conditions met, it is now up to the Bombay High Court to give the final verdict.
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