CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT)’s East Zone bench in Kolkata has issued notice to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), GAIL, member secretaries of CPCB and OSPCB, Petroleum & Explosives Safety Organisation, additional chief secretary state Environment, Forest and Climate Change department, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and collector Khurda over construction of a CNG and PNG depot in Kanan Vihar area of Bhubaneswar.
The bench of B Amit Sthalekar (Judicial Member) and Dr Arun Kumar Verma (Expert Member) said the matter requires consideration and directed all the respondents to file their counter-affidavits within four weeks. The matter has been posted to March 26 for next hearing.
Shukadev Mohanty, an 86-year-old resident of Kanan Vihar, had filed the petition stating the CNG and PNG station is being set up in violation of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines which prescribe that the distance between a residential building and the petrol pump installation site should not be less than 50 mtr.
In the case of the proposed CNG-PNG station in Kanan Vihar, the distance from the residential houses is less than five mtr. Moreover, GAIL had started construction without obtaining consent to establish (CTE) from the OSPCB, the petition alleged.