CUTTACK: The proposed Baliyatra Riverfront Improvement (BARFI) project has come under cloud following allegations of illegal and unauthorised sand filling on Mahanadi river bed here for construction works.
This has prompted Director (Environment) K Murugesan to ask the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to investigate into the allegations. The Director has sought a response from the Member Secretary of SEIAA, Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department and the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) in this regard.
In January, lawyer Shivsankar Mohanty had issued a notice under Orissa High Court Public Interest Litigation Rules, 2010 to authorities concerned seeking steps to stop the illegal and unauthorised sand filling on Mahanadi river bank for construction of the project being implemented by the H&UD department.Mohanty, in his PIL notice, has alleged that a vast stretch on Mahanadi river bed from Baliyatra Ground to Maritime Museum front was being reclaimed by illegal and unauthorised sand filling for BARFI project work.
He demanded to shift the proposed project site to any other place other than Mahanadi river bed as it posed a threat to the riverine ecology.Under a joint venture of Indo-Canada Environment Facility-II (Kharagpur) and Cuttack Municipal Corporation, a green belt project was undertaken on the river bed in November 2001 in the proposed project area.
Thousands of trees were also planted in the area by the Forest department under the Urban Afforestation Scheme in 2016-17 for increasing green cover, Mohanty pointed out while seeking protection of the trees.
The letter to Member Secretary of SEIAA on February 6 indicated that Murugesan expected the allegations raised by Mohanty to "be investigated and action as deemed proper be taken under intimation to the Forest and Environment department for necessary compliance." Sources said under BARFI project, sports and shopping complexes, hotels, recreation centres, musical fountain and footpath will be constructed at the site.