BENGALURU: In a major setback for the much delayed Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project, proposed 15 years ago to decongest the city’s traffic, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) to seek fresh Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) certification for the Rs 11,950-crore project.The Surpreme Court has, in effect, upheld the verdict given in this connection by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) last year.
The judgment was delivered by a Division Bench comprising Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta in the civil appeal case between Bengaluru Development Authority Vs Sudhakar Hegde and Others.
Delivering a verdict under Article 142 of the Constitution, the court also directed the BDA to hire a sector-specific accredited EIA consultant and ensure that no damage would be caused to the petroleum pipelines over which the project would come up.
Advocates Sanjay M Nuli and Shyam Divan appeared on behalf of the BDA. Nuli confirmed to the The New Indian Express over phone from New Delhi that the PRR will have to obtain EIA certification afresh.
The NGT had frozen the eight-lane project on February 8, 2019, stating that environmental clearance was already five years old and the data outdated. The BDA filed a plea against it in the Supreme Court on March 16, 2019.
Lashing out at the “abject failure” of BDA to provide the correct figure on trees, the Court said the BDA had understated the number of trees that would be cut. While the BDA said that only 519 trees would be felled for the project, the Deputy Conservator of Forests pegged the number at 16,785. It also pointed out that the BDA had not earlier specified that the land earmarked for the PRR passes through 1.5 acres of forest land in Jarakabande Kavalu area.
The project never took off due to numerous litigations filed by 4,000 landowners, whose 1810 acres of land were acquired for the project. There is also a dispute between the BDA and landowners over compensation.
The eight-lane road will encircle the Outer Ring Road and connect Tumakuru Road and Hosur Road. It is aimed at providing seamless connectivity to IT hubs and residential areas including Whitefield, Sarjapura, Kempegowda International Airport, Varthur and Hosakote.