SC clears way for int’l airport at Goa’s Mopa
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the go-ahead for the construction of an international airport at Goa’s Mopa by lifting the suspension it had imposed on its environmental clearance (EC) in March. It ordered that the construction should be subject to strict compliance with the conditions recommended by the Union environment ministry’s expert appraisal committee (EAC). The construction should be done under the supervision of the
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the court said.
“We direct the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute to be appointed to oversee compliance with the directions cumulatively issued by this Court. The suspension on the EC shall accordingly stand lifted,” the judgment said.
The work on the ~3,000 crore project for building the second international airport in Goa over 2,131 acres at the foothills of the Western Ghats was halted for nine months. Officials are hoping the work would soon be resumed and say they can set a revised deadline of early 2022 for the completion of the project’s first phase. The project was initially scheduled to be completed by September 2020.
A bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta based its decision on a fresh report submitted by the EAC recommending grant of the EC to the airport with additional environmental safeguards and conditions. The recommendation of the EAC is based on additional data submitted by the Goa government. After the work on the project was halted in March following the Supreme Court’s order, the state government provided information to the EAC regarding reserved forests, rivers, wetlands and mangroves in the vicinity of the proposed airport. According to the fresh information, there are seven reserved forests within 15 km of the proposed airport. Besides this, there are also four rivers in the vicinity of the airport in Goa and one in Maharashtra. The Western Ghats Mountain range also falls within the airport’s study area, according to the information provided to the environment ministry.