The Andhra Pradesh Government has suffered a major setback with the National Environmental Appellate Authority cancelling the clearance granted by the Union Government for the Polavaram mega project in the state. Now the state will have to go back to the drawing board for the project.

The multipurpose project, involving a capital cost of over Rs 9,000 crore, includes a hydel power component of 960 MW as well as irrigation networks. It was to transfer 80,000 million cubic meters of water to the Krishna basin via a 174 km-long canal and to Vishakhapatnam district through another canal. The project proposes to irrigate 7.21 lakh acres in Krishna, Godavari and Vishakhapatnam districts, and generate about 960 MW electricity. Water from this project was to feed the proposed Vizag-Kakinada Industrial Corridor; two Special Economic Zones and the Apparel Park.

If the project had come through, it would have displaced 2 lakh people in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

The project was opposed on the ground that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was inadequate and that no public hearing was conducted in Orissa and Chhattisgarh where the property of an estimated 3,000 families were to be submerged.

The appeal against the clearance was filed by R Sreedhar of Academy for Mountain Environics, an NGO. Two states — Orissa and Chhattisgarh — became party to the appeal, contending that the clearance was granted by the Environment Ministry without considering the opinion of the states, despite large number of displacements.

The order of the appellate authority says: “It is evident that no public hearing was conducted in the affected areas of Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Neither did the affected persons have any access to the executive summary of the project in the notified place, nor did they have any opportunity to participate in public hearing and express their view on the environment impact of the area.”

... contd.