HYDERABAD: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for the very low-frequency (VLF) radar station in the Damagundam forest area of Vikarabad district on Tuesday. With this development, the Indian Navy’s 15-year-long wait to establish the VLF radar station would come to an end. The VLF radar station is intended to communicate with ships and submarines using low frequency radio waves.
The backdrop: The Eastern Naval Command (ENC) had requested the State government to allot around 2,730 acres in Pudur and Damagundam villages in Vikarabad district, around 90 km from Hyderabad, to set up a very low frequency radar station. The process to acquire land and allot it to the Navy was started way back in 2008. The Navy selected Pudur mandal as a strategic location, as it could communicate with deployed units in the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.
HIGHLIGHTS:
* Congress govt defends stand to cooperate with Centre on establishing of a VLF Station / Naval Base at Pudur Village in Ranga Reddy District
* Final Approval for Naval project was given by TRS (BRS) government headed by the then CM K Chandrashekar Rao
* BRS govt issued an order on December 12, 2017
* BRS government also issued orders for the diversion of 1,174.00 hectares (2,900 acres) of forest land in Damagundam Reserve Forest of Hyderabad Division for setting of VLF Station / Naval Base
* Approval given by BRS govt in favour of Headquarters Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh under section-2 of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980
* Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy merely respected the age-old concept of continuity of governance, and cooperative federalism, and supported a project of national security and significance
TIMELINE
August 11, 2014: District Forest Officer, Vikarabad District raised Demand Notice to make the payment by the User Agency towards CA, NPV etc.
February 25, 2017: District Forest Officer, Vikarabad revised the Demand Notice in view of the increase in wage rates and change of location for raising plantation.
March 2, 2017: The Indian Navy paid an amount of Rs 133.54 crores towards extraction charges of tree growth as per the demand notice issued.
May 25, 2017: Compliance report on Stage-I was submitted to the State Government by the State Forest department.
November 14, 2017: The Ministry of Environment and Forest has accorded Stage-II (Final) approval for diversion of 1,174.00 hectares of forest land in Damagudem reserve forest.
December 19, 2017: Accordingly, the State Government has also accorded Final approval.