Team Herald
PANJIM: The Regional Empowered Committee (REC), Bengaluru, of the Union Environment Ministry has approved Goa government’s plan to divert almost 30 hectares of forest land for the Patradavi-Pollem highway expansion project.
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During its meeting held last month, the REC, however, directed the State to restrict the width and number of trees to be felled to minimum required extent as per their technical requirements, in line with the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) and the Supreme Court in similarly-placed NH 4-A in the State of Goa.
Also, it has asked the State to explore the possibility of the compensatory afforestation in Goa itself, towards the loss of forest land, as against proposed CA in the degraded forestlands in Dharwad District in Karnataka.
The Public Works Department (PWD) had approached REC with a request for permission to divert 29.836 ha of forest land for four-laning of the existing NH 66 – Patradevi to Pollem section.
The REC examined the proposal and heard the representative of the user agency and the State Forest Department. The Committee approved the project subject to the additional conditions with regards to implementation of mitigation measures as approved by the chief wildlife warden by the user agency.
During the meeting, the REC took into consideration that the project has multiple State links, access to Mopa International Airport, defence establishment such as Sea Bird project in Karwar, etc.
The committee also noted that the highway does not pass through any critical wildlife area.
