As thousands of site aspirants are keeping their fingers crossed hoping to be allotted a site in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is busy battling an ex-parte National Green Tribunal (NGT) stay on the project.
The last date for submission of application seeking site allotment is January 18. But the stay has pushed the process into uncertainty.
Hearing a petition filed by one Dase Gowda, the NGT-Chennai on January 4 granted an interim stay on further development at the layout.
This was based on the contention of the petitioner that the layout did not have an Environment Clearance (EC) prior to commencement of the project, which BDA disputes.
The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) had given environment clearance on October 29, 2015. On November 1, 2015, BDA issued a notification calling for applications to allot 5,000 sites in the layout.
BDA Commissioner T. Sham Bhatt claimed that BDA had not been served any notice in the case or received a copy of the order.
“It’s an ex-parte stay order issued by NGT. We will produce the EC in the next hearing on January 28 and get the stay vacated,” he said, adding that Kempegowda Layout is the first layout for which BDA sought environment clearance.
He clarified that the interim stay order will not affect allotment of sites.
Ramachandra, member-secretary of SEIAA, confirmed that the Authority had issued the EC, but with five conditions.
As the layout encompasses 4,023.675 acres, Bangalore Development Authority had to take Environment Clearance – which is mandatory for layouts above 50 hectares or 233 acres – before construction.
The Environment Clearance had listed five conditions: protection of flora and fauna in the Environment Management Plan; preservation of catchment area; compensatory afforestation; buffer areas for greenery and afforestation; and earmarking areas for setting up a solid waste management plant.
