Three mega Kochi projects, the oceanarium of the State government, the LPG pipeline laying of Bharath Petroleum Corporation and the multi-user liquid terminal project of the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) at Puthuvypeen have been conditionally recommended by the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) to the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The authority, which met in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, decided to recommend these projects on condition that the Coastal Regulation Zone guidelines would be complied with. A sub-committee has also been constituted for overseeing the implementation of the project, especially the compliance with CRZ guidelines.
The KCZMA can only recommend these projects and it is the Ministry that is to take the final call on them, said an authority member.
The CPT assured the panel that no reclamations and dumping of waste would be carried out at the CRZ area during the implementation of the project.
It would take out the waste including sledge from the site to one of its dumping sites, which was approved by the Central Ministry. The Port Trust has also agreed to redraw a road to the project site, which may pass through CRZ zone 1, said an authority member.
The panel also accepted the proposal of the State Fisheries Department, the proponents of the oceanarium project, for compensatory afforestation of mangroves as a pre-condition for recommending it to the Centre. It was proposed that the compensatory afforestation would be carried out in 40 acre. The authority suggested that the department produce consent letters from the agencies concerned on whose holdings the afforestation was proposed before forwarding the proposal to MoEF.
