Supreme Court appointed panel suggests scrapping railway project in Western Ghats

Empowered Committee (CEC) constituted by the Supreme Court has recommended withdrawal of the environmental approval to doubling of the single line railway track between Tinaighat in North Karnataka and the port town of Vasco da Gama in Goa. The line cuts across the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats and the CEC said that the project will only marginally enhance railway capacity but cause big damage to the fragile ecosystem of the Western Ghats, an internationally recognised Biodiversity hotspot. The recommendation is being seen as a big win for environmental activists.

The CEC also recommended that the Goa-Tamnar 440KV power line should be set up along the alignment of the existing power line to save fresh forest areas from intrusion. In the third major recommendation, the panel cleared the four-laning of NH-4A between Anmod and Panajim if done as an elevated corridor to prevent any harm to the wildlife.

All three projects were cleared in April last year by the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife (SCNBWL), chaired by Union minister of forests Prakash Javadekar, sparking uproar and protests in Goa. The Goa Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) invested in preserving the ecology, challenged the projects in the SC. A copy of the CEC report was submitted to the top court and another was given to the Goa Foundation.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times