CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set a three-month deadline for the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela (NIT-R) to submit a report on environmental impact caused by illegal excavation of top soil for laying earth bed for 35-km Haridaspur-Paradip railway line project. The NGT’s east zone bench in Kolkata set the fresh date on Monday after finding that the report for which an order was issued by the green panel on December 24, 2020 had not been complied till date.
NIT mining department’s Prof (Dr) HB Sahu had informed in a letter that during preparation of the report, it was noticed that some of the excavation sites are near river beds or streams. Hence, the expert team is planning to make another visit to specific sites near the water bodies to assess, if any adverse impact is caused due to the excavation at such sites, the letter said.
State Counsel SK Nayak on his part sought six months’ time for submission of the report by the NIT-R.
Taking note of it, the bench of B Amit Sthalekar (Judicial Member) and Saibal Dasgupta (Expert Member) said, “We find that from the date of the previous order on December 24, 2020, six months have already been passed. We, therefore, grant three months further time to NIT, Rourkela to give finality to the preliminary assessment of environment impact”. Accordingly, the bench fixed September 24 as next date for hearing on the matter.
Sasee Bhoosan Patnaik and three others had filed the petition alleging illegal excavation of huge quantities of soil in Mahakalpada, Marsaghai, Derabish and Kendrapara tehsils. Earlier on NGT’s direction, the Odisha State Pollution Control Board had reported that 49.79 lakh cubic metres of topsoil / earth had been excavated in the four tehsils for the railway line project. It had also calculated `45.11 lakh for Environment Management Fund contribution for restitution of environment by way of restoration, repair and reclamation and `2.1 lakh towards environmental compensation.