In what can turn out to be a major setback for Mamata Banerjee’s grand plans of Hooghly river beautification, including that of construction of Kolkata Eye, the Eastern Zone Bench of the National Green Tribunal on Friday ordered an injunction on any construction on the riverfront from sand head to Farakka in West Bengal.
“The National Green Tribunal ordered an injunction on any riverfront construction without proper environment impact assessment (EIA) and environment management plan (EMP) from Farraka in Murshidabad district to sand head,” well-known environment activist and petitioner Subhas Datta told The Hindu .
Mr Datta said that the Bench has also directed six different agencies to file a status report on construction on river front from Tollygunge to Dakhineswar on the Kolkata side of the river bank and Nazirganj to Bally Khal in Howrah.
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In the order issued today the chairperson of the Kolkata Port Trust has also been asked whether permission was taken for exiting constructions along the riverbanks.
The petition was filed by Mr Datta on February 4.