Conditional nod for Lavasa project [Dec 2011]

Conditional nod for Lavasa project
Lavasa Corporation gets conditional nod to complete the pending construction work on 257 residential buildings in the Rs. 3,000 crore planned hill station township. The incomplete buildings are located in a 614 hectare area of the proposed hill township.
The Environment Ministry’s expert appraisal committee has asked Lavasa to rework the planning and development of the entire project, including the environment impact assessment. The developer needs to submit a revised proposal. The Environment Ministry has accepted the recommendations.
According to a report, the decision by the expert committee to allow the corporation to complete unfinished construction in the 700 hectare area was taken as “substantial development” had already taken place there. The committee finds no other alternative other than appraising the project ex-post-facto and specifying certain conditions in an order to minimise future damages. However, EAC recommends, for the remaining area, where construction is yet to take place, there is still a chance to examine, analyse, review and correct the entire model of development in the right environmental perspective.
The expert committee has recommended that permission to complete the construction of the 257 units is subject to the corporation meeting five conditions. Lavasa will have to guarantee that there will be no hill cutting, digging, excavation, and that no activity involving generation of soil, its use or transportation/disposal will be carried out. “The FSI calculation shall be worked out separately based on land uses and shall not be averaged for the calculation of FSI”, the EAC recommends.
The corporation needs to set up a high-level verification and monitoring committee, which will include experts, representatives of the Union Environment Ministry and district administration for carrying out construction works in 614 hectares. The committee also recommends that the energy consumption shall aim to target minimum saving of at least 28 32 per cent and the intensity of educational/health facilities be developed in the area. In addition, at least 5 per cent of the total cost of project to be earmarked for CSR.
According to a statement released by Lavasa Corporation, “The Environment Clearance order is a positive development and comes as a reprieve for all our stakeholders including our investors, the villagers and Lavasa Corporation Ltd. The inordinate delay has led to a huge set back to the project and Lavasa Corporation has a challenging task at hand to bring the project up to speed and to meet our commitments”.

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